Argentine president under fire for 'anti-democratic' decrees
When Argentina’s new president Mauricio Macri assumed office last month, he did so with a promise to observe the rules of democracy and to open dialogue with the opposition, casting himself in sharp contrast to his populist predecessor Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
But one month into his government, Macri has already drawn fierce criticism for bypassing congress with a rapid succession of controversial presidential decrees to push through measures including the appointment of two new justices to the Supreme Court and the rescinding of Fernández de Kirchner’s 2009 Media Law designed to reduce the size of the Clarín media conglomerate (which controls around half of Argentina's media).
The new justice minister, Germán Garavano, defended the decrees as “emergency measures” while the country’s Congress was on its summer recess; but they have been roundly criticised as anti-democratic. “Not even Cristina Kirchner did anything so absurd,” said one of Argentina’s chief constitutional experts, Daniel Sabsay, of the supreme court appointments. The appointments legally require approval by the Senate, which could have been convened for an extraordinary session, an option Macri seemingly ruled out because its majority is still held by Fernández’s Victory Front (FPV) party.
Macri finally delayed his two Supreme Court appointments until February; but the unprecedented move left a bitter taste in the mouths of even his supporters. “I’m very saddened because everything Macri had done had moved me almost to tears but this horrifies me,” said Sabsay.
Conscious of having won by only a slim margin, Macri promised a new era of political amity in contrast with Fernández, who was seen by opponents as politically adversarial. “We want everybody to play a part, people who feel themselves to be on the right and people who feel on the left, Peronists and anti-Peronists,” said Macri, referring to the movement founded by former President Juan Perón in 1946 to which Fernández de Kirchner belongs.
But it is a promise of dialogue that some observers have begun to feel still remains unfulfilled. “Sitting down to talk is not enough for a political dialogue,” said political columnist Beatriz Sarlo during an interview on the TN news channel. “Fundamental questions need to be the object of that dialogue,” Sarlo said, criticising Macri for appointing supreme court justices by decree without prior consensus.
Macri’s success will depend on the economy. Some business sectors have welcomed Macri’s removal of export taxes on soy and other major agricultural exports, coupled with the removal of foreign exchange controls that hindered trade and financial transactions. Unions, however, are already flexing their muscles to demand wage hikes to offset inflation, which jumped from 1.6% monthly to 6% following a devaluation by Macri. Argentina’s only two other non-Peronist presidents since the return of democracy in 1983 both failed to complete their terms due to economic upheavals and social unrest fanned by Peronist union bosses.
At: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/10/argentinian-president-mauricio-macri-anti-democratic-decrees
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Not only undemocratic but unconstitutional: Article 99 of the Argentine Constitution only allows presidents to take advantage of the congressional recess period in cases of real emergencies - and having too few right-wing lackeys in Congress doesn't count.
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