01-11-19 Latin American Weekly Report

Alberto Fernández will become president of Argentina on 10 December. Fernández defeated the incumbent head of state Mauricio Macri by 48.1%-40.4% in the first round of presidential elections on 27 October. It was a comfortable victory but nothing like as emphatic as the primary elections on 11 August when Fernández took 47.8% of the vote and Macri just 31.8%. Macri even won in a belt of provinces across central Argentina, and his centre-right coalition Cambiemos will provide a bulwark of opposition to Fernández and his Peronist Frente de Todos coalition in the federal lower chamber of congress.