Argentina’s National Congress building in Buenos Aires. In the 2021 elections in Argentina, voters will elect half of the lower house and a third of the upper house. Photo credit: Wikimedia/Jacobo Tarrío – Congreso Nacional (CC BY 2.0)

Argentina is due to hold midterm legislative elections on October 24, 2021. Voters will elect half of the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Argentina’s Congress, and one third of the Senate, the upper house. Furthermore, although most of Argentina’s 23 provinces hold elections at the same time as the presidential election, a few are due to hold elections in 2021.

Political Context

These elections are happening in the context of an economic crisis, which the leftist government and COVID-19 have exacerbated.

The 2019 Elections in Argentina: Left-Wing Peronists Make a Comeback

In Argentina’s general elections in 2019, the left-wing populist, Peronist ticket of Alberto Fernández and former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner defeated President Mauricio Macri. It marked the first time in Argentina’s history that an incumbent 

Kirchner, who faced multiple criminal charges for corruption during her time in office, surprised everyone by running for vice president rather than president.

During her presidency, from 2007-2015, Kirchner ran Argentina’s finances into the ground. Macri had been Argentina’s first non-Peronist and non-radical to occupy the Casa Rosada in nearly a century, and his 2015 win inspired hope for reform. Nearly a century of chaos, populism, and weak institutions have hit Argentina hard. 

However, financial woes led to Macri’s defeat. In addition, Kirchner’s Frente de Todos swept the legislative elections, depriving the center-right of the gains they had made in the 2017 legislative elections.

Curated News and Analysis

Santiago Pérez, Wall Street Journal (October 5, 2020): Argentina, Running Low on Dollars, Faces Fresh Economic Turmoil

Reuters (October 1, 2020): In Argentina, nearly half in poverty as coronavirus deepens economic crisis

The Economist (October 31, 2019): Argentina gives the Peronists another chance

Ernesto Londoño and Daniel Politi, New York Times (October 27, 2019): In Argentina Election, Leftists Savor Victory Over Incumbent