Argentina 2011: Election day Sunday 23th october (POST ELECTION)

[big bad fab]

This post may be considered as trolling , but....

who is this Boudou ?

He looks like a football coach !!! (and believe me, in my mouth, that's hugely contemptuous )
his hair, his facial hair, his nose, his wrinkles, his stupid eyes, even his tie knot !!!
he doesn't look credible at all !

Well, now that I'm calmer , my question is: where does he come from ?

[big bad fab]

What is his background ? Where does he come from ?
I saw on Wikipedia that he is a salesman.
This guy seems simply mediocre.

In France, a former judoka as clever as a cow is a junior minister (since yesterday)... everything is of course possible .

[big bad fab]

Boudou was the director of the ANSES (Social security, unemployment subsidies and other stuff like that) for about 1 year (he had worked there for a while before though) and since July 2009 he has been Argentina's Economic minister. Alongside current mayor of Tigre, Sergio Massa (Also former cabinet chief in Cristina's administration, now in opposition). These 2 guys were credited for most of the work done there which is pretty well regarded even by some members of the opposition.

Last decade he was apparently pretty right wing economically even being a part of the party of Alvaro Alsogaray. Which probably makes me think that he's not a peronist but has to keep up appearances

From his appointment as Economy minister till Nestor Kirchner's death he wasn't all that powerful since he had a lot of clashes with Nestor and had little say about economic matters (which is hilarious considering he is...well...the economic minister ). His lack of media appereances during the time also reflects this. He was pretty close to Cristina though and when Nestor died Boudou took a more active role in things.

And well, i don't really know what Else to say, this guy started to get little mentions in the media since about 2006, he was starting to get known while economic minister in 2009 but he only came to national prominence in 2010, so there's not much else i can tell you about him I'm afraid.

Oh, here's his girlfriend Agustina Kampfer, if you like this kind of gossip




Redcommander is right though. He was probably the best candidate Cristina could pick. He's young and pretty charismatic. He's pretty popular with the youth in general (Young people are becoming one of Kirchner's main assets). He's not deeply tied with Peronism which could be a plus in the City of Buenos Aires and in some sectors in the Province. And while the economy is not booming as it was some years ago, as i said before, a lot of people feel the country is going in the right direction and that the economy is healthy and like it or not he's the visible face of all this right now.
Urtubey was too conservative and Abal Medina had a name that would have turned a lot of people off. Having Alicia Kirchner would have been considered too much nepotism even in this country and all the other candidates were deep into the peronist movement which would probably alienate Cristina non peronist allies and supporters.
Boudou is a guy that can get her some more votes and as i see it the only real way he would be a drag on the ticket is if the economy completely tanks between here and October which is not that likely and really, in that case not even Jesus Christ himself on the ticket would save Cristina.


This weekend I'll try to make a summary of the Mayoral election in Buenos Aires which is shaping up to be one of the most interesting elections of the year.

Oh and by the way, remember that i said last week that Martin Buzzi, the opposition candidate that won in Chubut was probably going to become a loyal Kirchnerist in a few months? Well, 2 days ago he officially announced that he was going to vote for Cristina and that we should support her. LOL, he didn't waste any time, did he?


And speaking about Flip Flops, remember that guy? Carlos Menem? President of Argentina from 1989 to 1999? A huge enemy of the left because of his neoliberal policies, the guy that had problems with Nestor Kirchner dating back from the mid 90's, the guy Nestor couldn't name without knocking on wood, one of the most reviled men in politics for the past 10 years?
Well, he's running for reelection as senator from La Rioja with Kirchnerist support and he recently said that Cristina was a great president.
That's a pretty awesome flip, from both sides

The Peronist movement (whatever it has meant throughout history) is probably one of the BEST political trends in world history .

[big bad fab]

That's really fascinating. Thanks for this long explanation, Edu.

I like this system: I mean, it's very interesting to study .
The problem, in RL, is the fact that you can't vote in October if you don't join the feast now: that's really a bias that is anti-democratic.
No constitutional court's rule on this ?

[big bad fab]

The best possible result for Kirchner, I suppose: "elected" in the first round and 2 candidates strictly on a par and, hence, unable to determine which one should remain to try to rally all the opposition...

[big bad fab]

Disappointing as it wasn't very suspenseful (well, even Buenos Aires city...)
But opinion polls were really good this time, weren't they ?

[big bad fab]

I guess there will be many breakaways in these tiny absolute majorities in the 2 chambers, but, still, wow, absolute majorities everywhere...