Argentina needs to focus on economic growth: Commentator

Press TV has interviewed Marcelo Sanchez, a journalist and political commentator in Tehran, to discuss the results of Argentina’s presidential election.  

Following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Well it looks like President Cristina Fernandez’s pick is very much leading and could possibly become the president of Argentina. What does this mean for the Argentineans and what are their challenges he has to deal with?  

Sanchez: Well Argentineans right now need something more than just a president. They need a master economist because you see the difference between Argentina and the rest of Latin American countries - well let’s remember Argentina is the third largest economy in Latin America after Brazil and Mexico - so the biggest challenge in this situation is to maintain the growth and productivity and also to prevent Argentina from going default. Argentineans are terrified of this financial crisis, this great depression in 2001 so they do not want to see that happening again.

The IMF said that in 2016 Argentina can have a contraction of 0.7 percent and if you consider the third largest economy in Latin America, this 0.7 percent translates into billions of dollars in inflation, over-valued currency. So the challenges are more economic than social or the foreign policy. I just wanted to make this distinction between Latin America and counties in Argentina. I think that in this case, Argentineans are just trying to choose a president that is not going to fight against corruption like we have seen in Guatemala and other countries in Central America or Latin America because corruption is just not a real problem in Argentina.

We have seen a 30 year democracy, 12 years of Kirchnerism which is this doctrine of central left social interest of the government. They are just trying to save what they have in financial welfare, social programs. They are trying to reduce the wealth gap in Argentina because this is huge thing and there is also the challenge of the new government to fight against capitalism in the shape of media ownership. There is a lot of discredit, if you will, against Cristina Fernandez, from these huge capitalists represented by [Mauricio] Macri in some instances. They do have the power of the media in Argentina so they were really powerful in order to convince the people that the Kirchnerism was not really working when we actually see the contrary on the evidence in the numbers.  

Press TV: Well do you think that this candidate Daniel Sioli can actually live up to expectations and can he be as popular as Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner was in the country? They say she has a dynasty of 12 years, her late husband and also herself ruling for 12 years in Argentina and also how do you think Sioli winning the elections is going to be perceived by western media? Do you think he is a favorable candidate? I was going through some articles and there was a lot of hope for change not necessarily wanting that Kirchnerism as you put it to go on.   

Sanchez: Well one of the interesting things of the Argentinean politics is that when you talk about elections you do not talk about really radical proposals such as Venezuela or Colombia or Central America. You have something more moderate speech or rhetoric trying to focus on economy measures, on social measures and we see that Sioli, he supported … Menem. If you remember Menem was a conservative economist on his government and then he is trying to follow in some of the kirchnerismo which was this social-oriented economy in Argentina but in any case Sioli is something of a reliable candidate for western media because as I described it before, Argentinean politics are so much different than the rest of Latin America.

But let’s remember and recapitulate that one of the huge things that he needs to face is the situation with the hedge funds, this two hedge vulture funds from America. They are demanding one hundred billion dollars to the Argentinean government. This situation has not been clear and in foreign policy we also had to mention the situation with the Malvinas Islands – well the British like to call them the Falklands - but actually this is a monologue between Britain and Britain himself but Sioli proposes that he will tone down the rhetoric with Britain trying to find some kind of solution and this is something really important for the Argentinean character.

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