Interview with Roberto Lavagna, Argentine Presidential Candidate
Interview with Roberto Lavagna, Argentine Presidential Candidate
In a frank assessment of Argentina’s current and future opportunities, Roberto Lavagna, the Concertación para Una Nación Avanzada (UNA) candidate, discusses his election platform. Employment, security, and education are three of the main issues to address in the run-up to the October 28 elections.
- an exchange rate that allows us to be competitive and austere as a country;
- a surplus in both foreign trade and fiscal accounts;
- debt restructured in such a way that it is sustainable over time, combined with a policy of debt reduction;
- low interest rates; and
- an improvement in terms of trade and exchange between Argentina and the rest of the world.
In institutional matters
- In 2006, the government reestablished budgetary superpowers that allow it to reassign resources—at its own discretion—of the budget voted on and approved by the Congress.
- In 2006, the government modified the authority of the Judicial Council, which is the body with the ability to name, sanction and remove judges from power. With the reform sponsored by Senator Kirchner, the executive power wound up with control over a vital organ for assuring a balanced republic.
- In 2006, the government modified the authority of the Financial Information Unit (UIF), which is the organ that has as its objective combating money laundering and terrorism financing. Before the reform, the UIF was led by a board of directors elected competitively. Since the 2006 reform, members are appointed by the executive power.
- At the end of 2006 and beginning of 2007, the national government intervened with the body in charge of official statistics (INDEC). It displaced its civil servants, and since then, it has tampered with statistics related to prices, poverty and wealth distribution. Before the INDEC affair, the government had already filled up all the positions in technical bodies such as the Commission for the Defense of Competition, the ONCCA, the SIGEN, and the Anticorruption Office.
- It exacerbated clientelism and the political control of provincial jurisdictions with its discretionary management of public works projects.
- The government used up half of the fiscal surplus that I and my economic team left it with in December 2005.
- The government introduced price controls and prohibited exports in certain sectors such as the meat and dairy industries.
- It authorized a six fold increase in transportation and energy subsidies.
- Price—as in the case of the energy sector—and cross-subsidy distortions increased, all of which discourage investment and do not favor the sectors that have less resources.
- Inflation was exacerbated by an inadequate mix of monetary and fiscal policies that gave an excessively expansive direction to economic policy for electoral reasons.
- Economic policy stopped being pro-active, it went on automatic pilot and it turned exclusively towards authorizing increases in public spending.
- The regime’s inability to administer matters and a lack of transparency resulted in delays in necessary energy projects—despite the government having the resources to finance the works—that led us to a severe crisis.
- The President added to the country’s isolation through bad decisions, such as an unnecessarily confrontational position at the Presidential Summit at Mar del Plata and his cultivation of tight relations with the Chávez regime.
- The government provoked a lack of confidence from neighboring countries (for example, Chile and Uruguay) through its irresponsible management of the energy crisis and the crisis of paper producers along the Uruguay River.
- The government gave Hugo Chávez an unrestricted platform in Argentinean territory for speaking out aggressively about other countries.
- International security will be one of the main points of our agenda. Argentina already suffered two horrendous terrorist attacks in the past. Assuring a high level of security in the Southern Cone is in the best interest of Argentina and Brazil as well as making sure that the Triple Border is a safe place, without any presence of international terrorism. We also envision cooperating with other countries in the eradication of narcotrafficking, preventing nuclear proliferation and promoting a stable Bolivia, etc.
- The second item on the bilateral agenda must be the protection of democracy in the region. We know that representative democracy and republican values are being threatened by the populist model of government promoted by Chávez, which fraudulently promises a “direct democracy.” Under the weight of charismatic leadership and a penchant for taking advantage of growing social divisions, this model seeks to undermine the institutions of the republic. The response must be a solely Latin American one.
- The third priority is commerce and trade. We hope that the United States does not give in to protectionist temptations in negotiations that take place within the realm of the WTO. It is difficult to think of the stability of the international system without a just order of business: one that does not discriminate through the use of subsidies and trade barriers for products produced in poor countries. We are interested in advancing a bio-energetic program.