Argentina’s powerful women face off in Buenos Aires vote

Bloomberg

As Buenos Aires goes to the polls for midterm elections, Maria Eugenia Vidal is everywhere — except on the ballot. Vidal is the province’s governor, a key ally of President Mauricio Macri, and the public face of a Senate campaign that’s turning into a referendum on his economic plans. It’s her picture that’s plastered across billboards in the industrial town of Hurlingham, just outside the Argentine capital; there’s barely a trace of Macri’s actual candidate. Vidal says the vote will decide “whether we continue with change or return to the past.”
That’s literally true in one sense. The opposition candidate in Buenos Aires is Macri’s predecessor, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner — and her pitch to voters involves trashing the president’s efforts to cut subsidies and open up one of the most protectionist economies in the world. The clash between Argentina’s most powerful women could determine whether that agenda has a future.
“In some ways this has become a competition between Vidal and Cristina,” said Lorena Moscovich, a professor of social
sciences at the University of San Martin
in Buenos Aires.
If so, Fernandez won the initial round. In August’s primary vote, she scored the narrowest of victories over Esteban Bullrich, the candidate backed by Macri and Vidal. But there are signs of a swing since then, with the latest polls before the October 22 ballot showing Bullrich between 2 and 4 percentage points ahead. Both candidates are likely to win seats in the multi-member constituency, and even a big swing won’t give Macri an outright majority in parliament, but there’s political capital to be gained by finishing first.
The ruling coalition’s campaign can point to an economy that’s gathering steam after a recession last year.