Macri's 'Let's Change' alliance ousted from city of Río Cuarto in first electoral test.
Municipal elections in the Argentine city of Río Cuarto handed President Mauricio Macri's right-wing Cambiemos ("Let's Change"
alliance a stinging defeat in its first electoral test since taking office six months ago.
With 94% of votes counted Peronist candidate Juan Manuel Llamosas defeated UCR candidate Eduardo Yuni by nearly 14%, with 46.6% to Yuni's 32.8%. The centrist UCR is the junior partner in Macri's 'Let's Change' alliance and had governed Río Cuarto for the last twelve years.
The Macri administration had spared no effort in supporting Yuni. Cabinet Chief Marcos Peña, Interior Minister Rogelio Frigerio, and Transport Minister Guillermo Dietrich were dispatched to campaign in Río Cuarto, while Macri himself appeared in a last-minute campaign ad urging voters to support their candidate. During his visit to the city, Frigerio promised local public works worth at least 500 million pesos ($35 million), while Dietrich announced the construction a new expressway and plans to expand commercial flight routes between Río Cuarto and various provincial capitals.
These campaign promises were made despite ongoing route cuts at Aerolíneas Argentinas and deep cutbacks in the federal public works budget that have led to a 49% collapse in asphalt sales since Macri took office.
Río Cuarto, a city of 160,000 located in the heart of central Argentina's fertile Pampas, is an important agricultural hub and as such was expected to benefit from policies tailor-made for agro-exporters, including the devaluation and deep cuts to export taxes. This prospect, as well as Córdoba Province's largely conservative politics, helped Macri win 70% of the vote in Río Cuarto during the November presidential runoff; but Yuni, who was polling at 40% before Macri's ad aired on local television, ultimately obtained less than 33%.
The significance of the loss was not lost on the Macri administration, which is facing sagging poll numbers nationwide over a sharp recession as well as corruption scandals such as the Panama Papers and dollar futures purchases which netted his family and associates millions when Macri devalued the peso by 40% last December.
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Less than 33% in a city that gave them 70% of the vote last November? No wonder Macri's so anxious to impose electronic voting nationwide.
