In August, Alberto Fernandez embarked on an international tour that will take him to four countries in a month. First, he was in Asuncion, Paraguay; Then New Delhi, India, and the tour continues: Fernandez attends an international summit in Havana this Thursday, and on Sunday he flies to New York, where he will attend the United Nations General Assembly. Argentina’s president, who will hand over command in December, spent a week of last month outside the national territory as the country goes through the final stretch of an election campaign marked by economic crisis and unrest. extreme right. Before his tenure ends, he may also travel to Beijing.
A series of trips outside the country organized by Fernández last month began on August 15, two days after the ruling Peronism came in third and the far-right party La Libertad Avanza, led by Javier Mili, held primary elections. Voting power. The president stayed away from the campaign ahead of the August primaries, as did his vice president, Christina Kirchner, and said he was doing so „very diligently.” With the first round of general elections to be held on October 22, two prominent figures of the ruling party have kept a distance.
The first stop on the tour was in Paraguay, where the president attended the inauguration of President-elect Santiago Pena. Later, he planned a trip to Johannesburg, South Africa to attend the BRICS summit between August 22 and 24, but neither he nor his foreign minister, Santiago Cafiero, attended. Fernandez celebrated Argentina joining the club of emerging economies from the Quinta Presidential de Olivos. According to reports, the government does not want to travel without being sure that the country will be accepted. Fernández then continued his agenda in the country and opened some works, participated in events, received women’s and men’s soccer world champion teams for the blind and ordered the return of three decorations from Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.
He boarded the plane again in the first week of September. He went to India to attend the G20 summit. In New Delhi, he held bilateral meetings with leaders of Germany, South Korea, United Arab Emirates and Bangladesh and paid floral tributes to Mahatma Gandhi with US Presidents, Joe Biden and other leaders. France, Emmanuel Macron. Argentina rejected „anti-democratic rhetoric that appears in all countries”, days after Javier Millay’s far-right party attacked a consensus built against four decades of dictatorship.
Fernandez was scheduled to attend Monday’s commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the military coup in Chile, but did not attend. After the G20 summit in India, he returned to Argentina and went to Havana this Thursday to attend the Group of 77 and China (G77 + China) meeting in the Cuban capital and Brazilian on Friday and Saturday. Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, Colombian Gustavo Pedro and Bolivian Luis Arce are also participating. There, representatives from 134 countries of the Global South will be present. The focus of the meeting will be on science and technology for development, but the environment, the global economic order and the war in Ukraine are also planned to be discussed.
From Cuba, Fernández travels to New York to attend the General Assembly of the United Nations during his mandate. Before starting the tour, presidential spokeswoman Gabriela Cerruti said the government was also considering an invitation to visit China to „continue bilateral trade and deepen ties.” A stop in Beijing will be participation in the II Belt and Road Forum on International Cooperation, although the president has yet to confirm that this is on the agenda. If that happens, the trip will be just before the first round of general elections on October 17 and 18.
Since taking office four years ago, Fernández has attended almost every international summit and has shown rapport with world leaders, from Spain’s president, Socialist Pedro Sánchez, to Italian Prime Minister Ultra Giorgia Meloni. “Argentina, especially this government, has always believed in multilateralism (…) I can talk to Xi Jinping. [Vladimir] With Putin and [Joe] Biden and I can be part of BRICS and no one can question me about that,” Fernandez said at the UN in Argentina this Tuesday. Said at the 11th Latin American and Caribbean Conference on Peace Operations.
Within the country, its negative image is overwhelming. His mandate was marred by a pandemic, a historic drought and a conflict with Vice President Christina Kirchner. Fernández governs a country that saw its national currency devalued 18% in August, three months before the end of his term, a domestic inflation rate of 124.4%, where one in four citizens lives in poverty and is awaiting funding from the International Monetary Fund. The new government to knock on the door again. Management of the crisis is the responsibility of the current economy minister and presidential candidate of the Peronist coalition, Unión por la Patria, while Fernández prioritizes the international agenda in the last part of his administration.
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