Broad Front (Argentina)
Broad Front (Argentina)
Main page
2041285

Broad Front (Argentina)

logo
Community Hub0 subscribers
What are your thoughts?
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Broad Front (Argentina)

The Broad Front (Spanish: Frente Grande, FG) is a centre-left to left-wing peronist political party in Argentina most prominent in the 1990s. The party is currently part of the former ruling Unión por la Patria coalition which supported Sergio Massa's presidential campaign.

The party was set up by a group of left-wing Justicialist Party members of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies, most notably Carlos Álvarez, and other left-wingers who were dissatisfied with the neo-liberal policies of President Carlos Menem, including dissident Christian Democrats led by Carlos Auyero and also figures such as Graciela Fernández Meijide. In 1990, the rebel Justicialists, having formed FredeJuSo, came together with the Communist Party of Argentina and others in a loose coalition. Álvarez proposed forming a unified party and dissolving the constituent members, thus automatically excluding the Communists, who left.

The Broad Front was officially created in May 1993, when Álvarez along with other members of the party joined forces with when two minor centre-left parties, Frente por la Democracia y la Justicia Social (FREDEJUSO) and Frente del Sur, a party set up by film-maker Pino Solanas, joined forces to form the Frente Grande. In the 1993 elections, the party's list in the city of Buenos Aires gained 38% of the vote and several deputies were elected around the country, including Álvarez, Meijide and Solanas. Solanas left the party a short while later over personal differences.

Representing the left-wing dissident Peronists from the Justicialist Party, were able to achieve unexpectedly strong results in the 1993 Argentine legislative election and the 1994 Argentine Constitutional Assembly election. In spring 1994, Álvarez led the Frente Grande into a new alliance, creating the Front for a Country in Solidarity (FrePaSo). In the 1995 Argentine general election, FrePaSo secured second place, unexpectedly unseating the Radical Civic Union from its second place for the first time in decades.

In early 1996, Bordón, the FrePaSo’s presidential candidate, left the party after unsuccessfully attempting to challenge Álvarez’s leadership. By 1997, the UCR and FrePaSo formed a coalition Alliance for Work, Justice, and Education, which won the 1997 Argentine legislative election, proving a successful challenge to Menem. However, this greatly undermined Broad Front and its appeal - the core base of Broad Front, left-wing Peronists, found it unacceptable for the party to cooperate with the UCR, the traditional enemy of Peronism. As a result, the party entered decline.

In 1998 open primaries, the FG-FrePaSo candidate Graciela Fernández Meijide lost to Fernando de la Rúa of the UCR, who went on to win the 1999 Argentine general election. FrePaSo would continue the success of the Frente Grande and propel Álvarez to be vice-president of the country. In 2000, the FG-FrePaSo candidate Aníbal Ibarra became mayor of Buenos Aires. However, De la Rúa's governance showed little shift from Menem's neoliberalism.

Following the deepening economic crisis and corruption scandals, Álvarez resigned from the vice-presidency in October 2000. A few months later, in May 2001, Álvarez also stepped down as the leader of FG-FrePaSo and quit politics, prompting a crisis in the coalition. De la Rúa's administration suffered a disastrous defeat in the mid-term 2001 Argentine legislative election, and also led to the collapse of FrePaSo, as the voters punished the party for bringing in an economically neoliberal administration despite promising a social-democratic one.

The Frente Grande continued to be a force in Buenos Aires politics, but has become largely marginalised with the collapse of FrePaSo; its members have largely joined the new Support for an Egalitarian Republic (ARI) party or returned to the Peronists under centre-left Presidents Néstor Kirchner and his wife and successor Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

See all
User Avatar
No comments yet.