Briefings & Intelligence

25-06-2015: Latin American Weekly Report

  • LatinNews

‘Zannini effect’ causes blue dollar to spike

To no-one’s surprise, Florencio Randazzo, Argentina’s interior and transport minister, dropped his bid for the presidency on 19 June. Randazzo’s decision, taken after a long meeting with President Cristina Fernández, means that the ruling Frente para la Victoria (FpV) can rally around a single candidate ahead of the October election: Daniel Scioli, the current governor of Buenos Aires province. Randazzo’s withdrawal was all but confirmed when Carlos Zannini, one of Fernández’s closest allies, accepted Scioli’s invitation to be his running mate. With the ultra-kirchnerista Zannini on the ticket, the price of the blue dollar soared as analysts anticipated a continuation of the government’s currency control policies in the event of a Scioli victory.

Randazzo was clearly peeved by his sidelining. Though he has resisted the temptation to resign his portfolio, which only expires on 10 December this year, Randazzo rejected Fernández’s proposition that he run for the governorship of Buenos Aires province instead of running for president. While Fernández may have considered Randazzo a closer ideological soulmate than Scioli, the national opinion polls showed that the current BA governor was the most popular candidate the FpV could pick.

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