Alberto Fernández's tenure as President of Argentina began on 10 December 2019, when Fernández was inaugurated, and ended on 10 December 2023. He took office alongside vice president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner following the Frente de Todos coalition's victory in the 2019 general election, with 48.24% of the vote against incumbent president Mauricio Macri's 40.28%. Fernández's victory represented the first time in Argentina's history that an incumbent president had been defeated in a re-election bid. In 2023, he was later succeeded by Javier Milei.
2019 election On 18 May 2019, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner announced that Fernández would be a candidate for president and that she would run for vice president alongside him, hosting his first campaign rally with Santa Cruz Governor Alicia Kirchner, sister-in-law of the former Kirchner.
About a month later, seeking to broaden his appeal to moderates, Fernández struck a deal with Sergio Massa to form an alliance called Frente de Todos, wherein Massa would be offered a role within a potential Fernández administration, or be given a key role within the Chamber of Deputies in exchange for dropping out of the presidential race and offering his support. Fernández also earned the endorsement of the General Confederation of Labour, receiving their support in exchange for promising that he will boost the economy and that there would be no labor reforms.
Inauguration
Fernández took office on 10 December 2019. The ceremony took place, as it is constitutionally mandated, in the palace of the National Congress of Argentina. He was accompanied by his domestic partner, Fabiola Yáñez, and his only child, Tani Fernández. At midday, Fernández was sworn in alongside Vice President-elect Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, in the presence of Macri, Vice President (and president of the Senate) Gabriela Michetti, the General Assembly (the congregation of both houses of Congress), and domestic and international dignitaries.
Cabinet
Fernández's cabinet took office on the same day he was sworn in as president, on 10 December 2019. The cabinet is formed by members of the Frente de Todos, a peronist coalition formed ahead of the 2019 general election, as well as independents. Reflecting the composition of the Frente de Todos, it was made up of members belonging to different branches of the Justicialist Party, members of the Renewal Front, and independents.
The first change in the cabinet took place in November 2020, when María Eugenia Bielsa was replaced by Jorge Ferraresi as Minister of Habitat. Ginés González García, Minister of Health, was sacked in February 2021 and replaced by vice-minister Carla Vizzotti following a scandal regarding preferential treatment in the COVID-19 vaccination campaign. The Justice Minister, Marcela Losardo, resigned in March 2021 for personal reasons and was replaced by congressman Martín Soria.
Ahead of the 2021 legislative elections, the ministers of defense (Agustín Rossi) and social development (Daniel Arroyo) announced their candidacies for legislative positions; they were replaced by Jorge Taiana and Juan Zabaleta, respectively, in August 2021. Following the governing coalition's poor showings in the September 2021 primary elections, President Fernández organised a cabinet reshuffle that resulted in changes in the portfolios of foreign affairs, security, agriculture, education, science and technology, and the Cabinet Chief's Office.
Ministers Ministry Minister Party Start End Cabinet Chief Justicialist Party Justicialist Party Justicialist Party Minister of the Interior Justicialist Party Minister of Foreign Affairs,International Trade and Worship Justicialist Party Justicialist Party Minister of Defense Justicialist Party Justicialist Party Minister of Economy Independent Justicialist Party Renewal Front Minister of Productive Development Independent Justicialist Party Minister of Tourism and Sports Broad Front Minister of Public Works Justicialist Party Minister of Justice and Human Rights Independent Justicialist Party Minister of Labour, Employmentand Social Security Justicialist Party Justicialist Party Minister of Health Justicialist Party Independent Minister of Social Development Renewal Front Justicialist Party Justicialist Party Minister of Education Independent Independent Minister of Science, Technologyand Innovation Independent Justicialist Party Minister of Agriculture, Livestock,and Fisheries Justicialist Party Justicialist Party Minister of Security Independent Justicialist Party Minister of Culture Independent Minister of Women, Gendersand Diversity Patria Grande Front Justicialist Party Minister of Transport Renewal Front Renewal Front Renewal Front Minister of Territorial Developmentand Habitat Justicialist Party Justicialist Party Justicialist Party Minister of the Environmentand Sustainable Development Justicialist Party
Presidential secretariats Ministry Minister Party Start End General Secretary Justicialist Party Legal and Technical Secretary Independent Secretary of Strategic Affairs Independent MID Secretary of Communications and Press Justicialist Party Independent
Domestic affairs Economic policy
On 14 December 2019, the government established by decree the emergency in occupational matters and double compensation for dismissal without just cause for six months.
Fernández's first legislative initiative, the Social Solidarity and Productive Recovery Bill, was passed by Congress on 23 December 2019. The bill includes tax hikes on foreign currency purchases, agricultural exports, wealth, and car sales - as well as tax incentives for production. Amid the worst recession in nearly two decades, it provides a 180-day freeze on utility rates, bonuses for the nation's retirees and Universal Allocation per Child beneficiaries, and food cards to two million of Argentina's poorest families. It also gave the president additional powers to renegotiate debt terms – with Argentina seeking to restructure its US$100 billion debt with private bondholders and US$45 billion borrowed by Macri from the International Monetary Fund. As the capital controls stayed in effect and with no prospect of being removed, the MCSI degraded the country from emerging market to standalone market.
Organisations of the agricultural sector, including Sociedad Rural Argentina, CONINAGRO, Argentine Agrarian Federation and Argentine Rural Confederations, rejected the increase in taxes on agricultural exports. Despite these conflicts, Fernández announced the three-point increase in withholding tax on soybeans on the day of the opening of the regular sessions, on 1 March and generated major problems in the relationship between the government and the agricultural sector.
At the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, the IMF reported that Argentina's GDP would plunge by 9.9 percent, after the country's economy contracted by 5.4 percent in first quarter of 2020, with unemployment rising over 10.4 percent in the first three months of the year, before the lockdown started. On September 22, as part of the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, official reports showed a 19% year-on-year drop in the GDP for the second quarter of 2020, the biggest drop in the country's history. Investment went down 38% from the previous year. The poverty rate rose to 42% in the second half of 2020, the highest since 2004. Child poverty reaches the 57.7% of minors of 14 years.
Debt restructuring and agreement with the IMF
In 2018, under the Mauricio Macri administration, Argentina received the International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s biggest loan to date: $57 billion US$ were initially greenlit by the international organisation. Following Macri's defeat in the 2019 election, Fernández's economy minister, Martín Guzmán, announced the incoming administration would not request the final installment of the IMF's loan, accounting for $11 billion.
Argentina defaulted again on 22 May 2020 by failing to pay $500 million on its due date to its creditors. Negotiations for the restructuring of $66 billion of its debt continued after that. On 4 August, Fernández reached an accord with the biggest creditors on terms for a restructuring of $65bn in foreign bonds, after a breakthrough in talks that had at times looked close to collapse since the country's ninth debt default in May.
In 2021, the International Monetary Fund concluded the 2018 loan granted to Macri's administration "had not delivered on its objectives". The Fernández administration has maintained its criticism of the deal, with Guzmán calling it "an absurd loan".
On 28 January 2022, the Fernández administration struck an agreement in principle with the International Monetary Fund over a new $44.5 billion standby deal. The deal, which requires congressional approval in order to take effect, caused unease within the governing coalition. Máximo Kirchner, president of the Frente de Todos parliamentary bloc in the Chamber of Deputies and leader of La Cámpora, one of the coalition's largest partners, resigned from his position on 1 February 2022 over disagreements with the IMF deal.
COVID-19 pandemic
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Fernández administration announced a country-wide lockdown, in effect from 20 March until 31 March, later extended until 12 April. The lockdown was further renewed on 27 April, 11 May, 25 May, 8 June, 1 July, 18 July, 3 August, 17 August, 31 August, and 21 September, and included several measures including travel, transport and citizen movement restrictions, stay-at-home orders, store closures and reduced operating hours.
Responses to the outbreak have included restrictions on commerce and movement, closure of borders, and the closure of schools and educational institutions. The announcement of the lockdown was generally well received, although there were concerns with its economic impact in the already delicate state of Argentina's economy, with analysts predicting at least 3% GDP decrease in 2020. Fernandez later announced a 700 billion pesos (US$11.1 billion) stimulus package, worth 2% of the country's GDP. After announced a mandatory quarantine to every person that returned to Argentina from highly affected countries, the government closed its borders, ports, and suspended flights.
On 23 March, Fernández asked the Chinese president Xi Jinping for 1,500 ventilators as Argentina had only 8,890 available.
Despite the government's hard lockdown policy, Fernández was criticised for not following the appropriate protocols himself. This included traveling throughout the country, taking pictures with large groups of supporters without properly wearing a mask nor respecting social distancing, and holding social gatherings with union leaders.
On 3 September 2020, despite most local governments still enforcing strict lockdown measures, Fernández stated that "there is no lockdown", and that such thoughts had "been instilled by the opposition", as part of a political agenda. Fernández eased some lockdown measures in the Greater Buenos Aires on 6 November 2020, shifting to a "social distancing" phase.
Economic impact