Peronists were celebrating their return to power today as centre-Left opposition leader Alberto Fernandez and his vice-presidential running mate, the former president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, claimed an election victory.
Thousands of jubilant supporters waved blue and white Argentine flags and chanted, “We’re coming back! We’re coming back!” as the incumbent Conservative president Mauricio Macri conceded defeat.
“Today, Alberto is the president of all Argentines,” Cristina Fernandez, who governed the country from 2007 to 2015, told supporters, some of whom brandished tattoos showing her and her late husband — and predecessor as president — Nestor Kirchner.
Alberto Fernandez had 48.1 per cent of the votes compared with 40.4 per cent for Mr Macri, with almost 97 per cent of the votes counted.
The largely peaceful election was dominated by concerns over the country’s economic woes and rising poverty, with voters rejecting austerity measures that Mr Macri insisted were needed to revive Argentina’s struggling economy.
“The only thing that concerns us is that Argentines stop suffering once and for all,” Alberto Fernandez told the crowd in Buenos Aires.
Mr Macri called Alberto Fernandez to congratulate him and invited him for a breakfast meeting today at the presidential palace. “We need an orderly transition because the most important thing is the well-being of all Argentines,” Mr Macri said.
Argentina’s inflation rate is one of the highest in the world, nearly one third of Argentines are poor and its currency has plunged under Mr Macri.
