Political parties of Argentina

Argentine history can be written in different ways, it could be said that it has many versions and ways of telling it, especially its political parties or rather, how politics are transformed into an ideology... Politics is not a science, it is a practical wisdom, it is a prudence that is based on speculative wisdom, and this is metaphysical and theological. But in order to relate this definition to Argentine politics, we must know that it is an ideology, which is defined as a coherent system of ideas with more or less real foundation, which is sustained for legitimacy or because it is useful to certain interests.

In Argentina it began to distinguish itself after the signing of the declaration of independence and its starting point was the Anarchy of the year 20. Its pioneers were the Federal Party and the Unitary Party. After the civil wars ended, the political panorama appeared divided between the National Party and the Autonomist Party. Around 1880 the PAN (National Autonomist Party) was formed, effectively establishing a single-party regime that ruled between 1874 and 1916. In the 1890s, the Radical Civic Union and the Socialist Party were founded and in the 1940s the the Justice Party.

Starting in 1946, Argentine political life was polarized between radicals and justicialistas. This polarization was affected by systematic military coups. Then a power struggle between liberals ensued from 1983. They put pressure on the different governments that followed (UCR, Justicialismo, Alianza), using the residual power of some of the military, carrying out currency runs, pressing to impose a service economy, in private hands, and a liberal financial system, which It lasted until the social outbreak of 2000/2001. There were 5 presidents in a short period of time, in which the default of the Argentine economic system had to be declared. Which led to a disbelief in the political system. In the context of political disbelief and institutional chaos, a justicialism embodied in the figure of Eduardo Duhalde emerges as a stabilizing force. With poor electoral support due to partisan atomization, Néstor Kirchner, Néstor Kirchner, won the 2003 elections. Despite its Peronist origin, the Kirchner government would promote a mainstreaming policy integrating a broad political spectrum, from socialists to alfonsinistas. During the Cristina and Néstor Kirchner governments, a new political identity would be born under the name of Kirchnerism, formally constituted in the Frente Para la Victoria. This new identity would entail an adverse reaction, anti-Kirchnerism. Under this concept, different alliances and political parties would be established, such as the Republican Proposal or the Civic Coalition. In 2015, a large concentration of anti-Kirchner forces with the name of Cambiemos, made up of PRO, UCR, and the Civic Coalition, won the 2015 presidential elections.

From the May Revolution to the Anarchy of the year 20

When the Spanish Viceroy was dismissed by a large majority of the Cabildo, the appointment of the members of the First Board was carried out with the objective that all the social sectors that supported the revolution would be represented and in balance. Cornelio Saavedra represented the military sector, Manuel Alberdi as a representative of the Clergy; Mariano Moreno, Juan José Castelli, Manuel Belgrano represented the intellectuals and lawyers. In this revolution, the consideration of institutional change was vindicated, when the circumstances and the needs of the common good advised it, it was considered a natural right of man and society, unlike today in Argentina, the common good It is not constitutional and is interpreted as immoral and contrary to the common good of what is called legal and constitutional. John Paul II reaffirms " The authority is postulated by the moral order and derives from God. Therefore, if the laws of the rulers were in contradiction with the order and consequently, in contradiction with the will of God, they would not have the force to oblige in conscience..., even more, the authority would cease to be such. Due to the need for survival, a legitimate authority is needed, which must be occupied by someone who is capable of saving society.

The Governing Board emerged on Friday, May 25, 1810 in Buenos Aires, capital of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, as a consequence of the triumph of the May Revolution that removed Viceroy Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros, it existed as such until on December 18 of the same year, since with the incorporation of deputies from the interior it became the Junta Grande.

Soon the divisions began between the supporters represented by Moreno and Saavedra respectively. Towards the end of 1810, the divergences within the Primera Junta among the morenistas, which was a more progressive and revolutionary trend within the Junta, led by Moreno; and the saavedristas, a more conservative trend, headed by Saavedra, led to internal discussions. Mariano Moreno was the engine of the revolution underway. From his position as secretary of the Junta, he promoted innovative measures and tried to spread revolutionary ideals through La Gaceta, a newspaper founded by him on June 7, 1810.

Cornelio Saavedra, a military leader, represented the most traditional sectors that were satisfied with a change of government that guaranteed free trade and did not change the social and economic situation left behind by Spanish domination. In response to the gesture of an officer of the Patricios Regiment, in which he exalted the person of Saavedra, as if he were the "king or emperor of America", Moreno presented a project for the Suppression of Honors to the Board. The militia leaders, fearful of Saavedra's loss of power, pressured to remove Moreno. Tensions between the two sectors would increase. Saavedra's excessive personalism and his attempts to monopolize the power of the Junta in his person through military pressure and his reluctance to declare formal independence led to a total break with the morenista faction. Officially, Moreno was marching on a mission entrusted by the Junta Big, but in practice it was an exile from Buenos Aires, where the group supported by Saavedra monopolized power.

At the end of 1810 Moreno was sent on a mission to Great Britain that he would never arrive at since he died at sea under strange circumstances, in the first days of March 1811. His political heirs created the first political club called &# 34;Club Morenista", whose members later founded the Patriotic Society. According to the testimony of his brother Manuel Moreno and Tomás Guido, his secretaries and companions on that trip, he died due to a convulsion caused by an overdose of a medication administered by the ship's captain: when they arrived at Moreno's cabin, the captain said that he had given him four grams of an emetic commonly used at that time, made with antimony and potash tartarate, 40 times the dose known to be fatal. Both witnesses later conjectured that he was poisoned by the ship's captain, and that the order would have been given by Saavedra.

During the 1810s, the country tried to organize itself under different forms of government. The last of these, and the most extensive, was the Directory, which was organized in 1814. But this government, of a centralist nature, had to face autonomist reactions from various provinces. The most notable was that of the Federal League organized by José Artigas in the coastal provinces.

Unitary and Federal

The Unitarians formed an Argentine political party that proclaimed centralism and considered the provinces as simple internal divisions with little autonomy. The unitarios were a group made up mostly of the elite of Buenos Aires and the cities that were provincial capitals: members of the upper class. Said party was in force from 1816 to 1862. They mainly defended the centralization of power in the province of Buenos Aires and unrestricted free trade as an economic doctrine and a role of strong ties with Great Britain. The Unitarians wanted Buenos Aires to be the head and capital of the country, since it had inherited the colonial administrative apparatus of the old viceroyalty. For the Unitarians, the most logical thing was to establish a national government in Buenos Aires that would make all the decisions, subordinating the provincial governments, also proposing the census vote or limited to a small elite. Among its main leaders were Lavalle, Lamadrid and Rivadavia.

On the other hand, the Federal Party was supported by small merchants, the urban lower classes and the rural population. along with the support of the ranchers and other large rural owners who began to identify themselves with a federal political project. This proposed the organization of a central power that should be based on respect for the autonomy of the provinces. In relation to the economic project they were protectionist and gave a central role to national industries, they wanted the distribution of customs revenues that Buenos Aires handled and free navigation of inland rivers. He defended the federal system of the Republic, democracy and universal suffrage. The freedom and autonomy of the provinces were sought, delegating only certain functions to a central State. The existence of the federales is recorded from the year 1816 to 1868 among their leaders were Artigas, Dorrego and Urquiza.

The federal governor of Buenos Aires, Juan Manuel de Rosas, took office in 1835. Then began the decline of the unitary party. The Federal ideals had been proclaimed in the Federal Pact of 1831 after the defeat of the unitary forces giving way to the Argentine Confederation. In turn, the Federal Pact functioned in fact as the constitution of Argentina until the sanction of the National Constitution in 1853.

Late 19th century

Coming from aristocratic families from the provinces and the capital, they formed the League of Governors and then the National Autonomist Party, a fusion of the dominant forces in the previous period, the Autonomist Party of Adolfo Alsina and the National Party of Nicolás Avellaneda, who together with the Nationalist Party of Bartolomé Mitre were the three branches into which the Unitary Party had divided. In 1880, he launched the candidacy for the presidency of General Julio Argentino Roca. For three decades the party ruled through electoral fraud and a model of a virtual single party, the National Autonomist Party. Of populist ideology, he bases his power on the manipulation of elections, clientelism, lack of political freedom, etc.

The first free provincial elections were held that same year, 1912, in the province of Santa Fe, and the first national elections under that law were those of 1916.

History of political parties

In general terms, starting in 1945, Argentine political life was polarized between radicals and peronists. Radicalism is organized in the Radical Civic Union, founded in 1891, while Peronism is organized in the Justicialista Party, founded in 1946.

In the background, political groups more clearly aligned with the left (as has been the case at different historical moments of the Socialist Party, or the Big Front) and others more inclined to the left tend to compete electorally behind the two bipartisan actors. the right wing of the political arc (UCeDé, Acción por la República, PRO). May 25, 1973, the date on which the constitutional government of Héctor José Cámpora took office, the elections were irregular and conditional and with the majority party PJ and parties of a communist nature proscribed.

In turn, the normal development of the parties was affected by constant coups and military governments that systematically prevented Peronists and radicals from governing until 1983.

Having achieved democratic continuity since 1983, the country enjoyed the greatest political stability. In 1989, President Carlos Menem, from the Justicialista Party, took office, leading a liberal-style government. This made a certain progressive or center-left sector begin to have a place on the national political scene. In 1995, for the first time in a hundred years, radicalism was neither of the two majority forces in a free presidential election, without the proscription of Peronism. During that decade, both parties suffered divisions and strong internal fractures, giving rise to the formation of alliances, splits and the creation of new political forces. On the spectrum of the political right will appear the Union of the Democratic Center (officially UCEDE, also known as UCeDe or UCeDé) founded in 1982 by Álvaro Alsogaray linked to the National Reorganization Process. Álvaro Alsogaray had been an official in the governments of the dictators Pedro Eugenio Aramburu and Juan Carlos Onganía. By the mid-1990s, the party had lost a large part of its electoral wealth, hampered by acts of corruption involving various party members. Its founder announced in 1997 that in the UCeDé "there is corruption, disorder and indiscipline". Several main members of the party were prosecuted for acts of corruption; among them Alberto Albamonte, María Julia Alsogaray among others

After the great economic, social and political crisis that Argentina suffered from 1999, and which erupted on December 19 and 20, 2001, political parties fell into widespread disrepute, which manifested itself emotionally in a slogan constantly chanted by the demonstrators: «Let them all go». After the economic collapse of the radical government of Ferando de la Rúa, radicalism suffered a pronounced national electoral decline and several fractures, but maintaining a provincial presence in Corrientes and Mendoza and considerable parliamentary representation. The Justicialista Party, without formally fracturing, it appears divided as of the 2003 elections. In 2008 it was normalized, with ex-president Néstor Kirchner becoming the presidency of the party. The sectors that do not recognize Kirchner's leadership, formed Federal Peronism; while on the other hand, Kirchnerism and the Front for Victory appear within the Justicialista Party, but with important allies in radicalism (the so-called Radicals K) and other parties; it won the presidential elections of 2003, 2007 and 2011. The party is placed at the center-left of the political spectrum. In the 2011 presidential elections, Cristina Kirchner obtained 54.11% of the votes, thus agreeing to a second term. In said election, the Front for Victory achieved the highest percentage achieved in a presidential election since 1983. It was also third in percentage of votes, after Juan Domingo Perón and Hipólito Yrigoyen. In 2005, together with Compromiso para el Cambio, he created of Macri, the Republican Proposal alliance (PRO). Macrismo will appear on the scene with Compromiso para el Cambio, as a right-wing political force that won the City of Buenos Aires in 2007 and 2011

In 2015, the Cambiemos alliance was formed, with the PRO, the UCR and the CC-ARI; in the PASO, Mauricio Macri was chosen in the internal. In the general elections he came second with 34.15%, only behind the Kirchnerist Daniel Scioli with 37.08%. Thus, on Sunday, November 22, 2015, the first ballot in Argentine history took place, which was won by Mauricio Macri.

• The Socialist Party (PS) unified and in 2007 won the third electoral district (Santa Fe). Electorally tends to establish alliances with the Radical Civic Union,^{[chuckles]required]}with the Civic Coalition, GEN and center-left parties as South Frees.^{[chuckles]required]}
• Several leftist groups and parties made some insertion between unemployed and informal workers; and also growth between segments of occupied workers, enabling leadership in trade unions and the student movement.^{[chuckles]required]} In 2011, the Left and Workers Front (integrated by the Workers Party, the PTS and Socialist Left) was created, which has obtained four national deputies as well as provincial and regional representations in the 2013 and 2015 elections.

List of political parties

For a list of current and historical political parties, coalitions, and alliances in Argentina, see the list of political parties in Argentina.

Acknowledgment

Legally, there were 67 parties recognized "of national order", as of the date of the last national election. Although the affiliation of most national parties is consistent with the distribution of the population, there are notable exceptions, generally produced because some parties reached their greatest development in a certain province which they have governed in the past. This is the case of the Autonomist Party (65% of its 38,000 members are from Corrientes, the province that it governed during the 1990s), the Progressive Democratic Party (60% of its 34,000 members are from Santa Fe, where it held the mayorship of Rosario for several years), or the Socialist Party (with more affiliates in Santa Fe than in Buenos Aires). Many of the parties that appear in the top fifteen positions, such as the Integration and Development Movement, have decades of electoral results that are not consistent with the number of affiliates, or even no longer compete individually but only integrating fronts with other groups. It happens that affiliations do not expire as long as the citizen lives, and there are those who do not want to bother with the process of disassociation, for which they continue to appear as adherents to parties that they no longer support with their vote.

21st century

On July 9, 2009, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner called for a broad process of political dialogue. Months later, as a result of these meetings, a bill was prepared that served to treat more than one hundred related projects, of which that numerous contributions were incorporated, proceeding to the sanction of the 2009 political reform law promoted by Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Democratization of Representation. This law implemented the system of open, simultaneous and compulsory primaries. It was sanctioned on December 2, 2009. The law established primary elections in which each political group presents its candidates, being able to have one or more internal lines. Citizens will choose among the national order candidates (president, senators and deputies) of the party groups they want. Political parties present all their pre-candidates for all their positions to be elected and citizens vote for their preferred pre-candidates to compete for said position.

In addition, the free distribution of electoral advertising was established in an equitable manner, which will be publicly raffled and the National Electoral Directorate of the Ministry of the Interior will distribute them among the political parties, distributing 50% of the spaces among all political parties and the The remaining 50% in proportion to the number of votes obtained in the previous general election. The law had a total of 110 articles and pursued the objectives of generating greater democratization within political parties and their opening to society, providing mechanisms and institutional rules that contribute to the stability and representativeness of political parties, reducing the asymmetries between political forces by regulating the financing mechanisms of parties and electoral campaigns, and rationalizing and modernizing some aspects of electoral administration and making political campaigns transparent. This Law modified, among others, the Organic Law of Political Parties and the Law of Financing of Political Parties. In addition, the minimum number of members that a political party must have in order not to lose legal status was modified, and thus have the possibility of running for elections. From that moment on, all the small parties are in a process of recovering their status party in each constituency.

On November 2, 2012, Cristina Kirchner promulgated Law 26,774 on Argentine Citizenship, approved with 131 votes in favor, 2 against, and 1 abstention. in order to empower 16 and 17-year-olds to vote in national elections, establishes that the vote for these new voters will be optional, said law allowed to expand the right to vote for 500,000 young people who were empowered to exercise their vote, representing around 3 percent of the electoral roll. The approval of law 26,774 put Argentina in the select group of countries and regions that allow citizens aged 16 and 17 to vote.

In 2013, among other measures to expedite the count and guarantee greater transparency, the application of inviolable envelopes to transfer the telegrams, greater participation of prosecutors and real-time GPS tracking of trucks in the withdrawal of ballot boxes were launched. of the measures that will be adopted for the first time to ensure transparency and "reaffirm legitimacy" of the presidential election of that year. It was established that party prosecutors have access to the necessary equipment to be able to follow the entire process in real time, and that they can be present at the centers for receiving, digitizing and transmitting the scrutiny telegrams.

A report from the National Electoral Chamber shows the following distribution of affiliations among the first fifteen most numerous parties:

N.o	Party		Affiliates	%
1		Justice Party	3.237.605	39.95
2		Radical Civic Union	1.879.253	23,19
3		Republican Proposal	162.937	2.01
4		Front Grande	134.503	1.66
5		Socialist Party	109.158	1.35
6		Neuquén People ' s Movement	91.414	1,13
7		Democratic Party	77.596	0.96
8		Workers’ Party	71.350	0.88
9		Free Movement of the South	68.999	0.85
10		Union of the Democratic Centre	52.483	0.65
11		Socialist Movement of Workers	52.045	0.64
12		ARI Civic Coalition	50.608	0.62
13		Fe Party	49.086	0.61
14		Kolina	48.174	0.59
15		Liberal Party	48.076	0.59
16		Integration and Development Movement	46.865	0,58
17		New Movement to Socialism	45.982	0.57
18		Electoral Instrument by the Popular Unit	44.357	0.55
19		Victory Party	43.999	0.54
20		Federal commitment	42.926	0.53
21		Labour and People ' s Party	42.861	0.53
22		Republican Force	41.588	0.51
23		Workers' Party for Socialism	40.259	0.50
24		Christian Democratic Party	39.583	0.49
25		Intransigent Party	37.481	0.46
26		Autonomous Party	36.318	0.45
27		Party for Popular Sovereignty	36.177	0.45
28		Generation for a National Meeting	34.605	0.43
29		Open Policy for Social Integrity	34.325	0.42
30		Workers' Party for Socialism	40.259	0.50
31		Federal People ' s Union	33.596	0.41
32		Progressive Democratic Party	32.932	0.41
33		New meeting	31.862	0.39
34		Solidarity Party	30.952	0.38
35		Nationalist Constitutional Party - UNIR	30.161	0.37
36		Bloc party	29.105	0.36
37		New Left	26.688	0.33
38		Popular Dignity	24.815	0.31
39		Social Council Party	24,671	0.30
40		Popular Conservative Party	24.590	0.30
41		FORJA Concertation Party	23.869	0.29
42		Labour and Equity Party	23.150	0.29
43		Federal Renewal Party	22.392	0.27
44		Front Renovator	21.601	0.27
45		Left by a Socialist Option	21.567	0.27
46		Federal Party	21.142	0.26
47		Movement Left Youth Dignity	20.916	0.26
48		Salta Renewal Party	20.641	0.25
49		Federal Agreement Party	20.591	0.25
50		Third Position Party	19.764	0.24
51		Popular Party	19.615	0.24
52		Party of Culture, Education and Labour	18.115	0.22
53		Front Patria Grande	18.105	0.22
54		New Party	18.052	0.22
55		Bonaerense Correction	17.587	0.22
56		Celeste and White Union	16.266	0.20
57		Unite for Freedom and Dignity	15.173	0.19
58		Political, Social and Cultural Movement South Project	14.489	0.18
59		Popular Left	13.695	0.17
60		Communist Party	13.147	0.16
61		Authentic Socialist Party	12.912	0.16
62		Green Party	12.381	0.15
63		New leadership	12.341	0.15
64		Labour Party	12.070	0.15
65		New Space of Participation	12.019	0.15
66		Neighborhood Action Movement	11.933	0.15
67		Popular Party	10.825	0.13
68		Corriente Nacional Martín Fierro	10.769	0.13
69		Republican Liberal Party	10.131	0.13
70		Public trust	9.314	0.11
71		Front H.A.C.E.R. for Social Progress	9.137	0.11
72		Action Chacoña	9.098	0.11
73		Federal Solidarity Action Front	8.799	0.11
74		Loyalty and Dignity	8.494	0.10
75		Federal Republican Party	8.092	0.10
76		Patriot Front	7.711	0.10
77		Memory and Social Mobilization	7.544	0.09
78		Social Progress Party	7.437	0.09
79		Latin American Movement for Social Expression (MILES)	7.421	0.09
80		Together we are Río Negro	7.366	0.09
81		Equal	6.925	0.09
82		Partido Todos por Buenos Aires	6.899	0.09
83		Participation, Ethics and Solidarity	6.599	0.08
84		Humanist Party	6.222	0.08
85		Provida Celeste Party	6.162	0.08
86		New Country	5.822	0.07
87		ELI - Meeting in Freedom	5.780	0.07
88		Civic Front of Córdoba	5.597	0.07
89		Federal Proposal for Change	5.576	0.07
90		United Republic	5.094	0.06
91		Meeting of Cordoba	4959	0.06
92		Innovative Tucumán Party	4863	0.06
93		Dialogue Party	4.804	0.06
94		Renovative Crusade	4.790	0.06
95		Chaco bases and principles	4.646	0.06
96		New Citizen Union	4.574	0.06
97		Protector of Political Force	4.555	0.06
98		Integrated Party	4.495	0.06
99		Party for Social Justice	4.475	0.06
100		Federal Social Action Movement	4.471	0.06
		Other	424.897	5,24