With inflation touching 60%, citizens in Argentina took to the streets of Buenos Aires and other towns and cities on Saturday to march against the economic policies of President Alberto Fernández. The anti-government demonstrations, which coincided with the country’s independence day, saw protesters brandishing burning torches, a guillotine, and inflatable dolls of members of the government exhibiting the people’s frustrations.
Protesters carried placards reading “Defend the Republic,” “Long live the homeland,” and “Government of thieves,” with protests spreading to other cities including Mendoza, Rosario, Córdoba, Mar del Plata, and San Miguel de Tucumán. Protesters also demande an “Argentina without Cristina,” a reference to Vice-President (VP) Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, whose family has been a mainstay in the country’s politics for years.
Two parallel rallies, primarily led by leftist parties, marched to Plaza de Mayo, in front of Casa Rosada, the presidential office. Manuela Castañeira, an opposition leader from the left-wing Frente de Izquierda, demanded an “annulment of the agreement with the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and for sovereignty measures to be taken in defence of the social majorities.”
Argentine people rise up towards the political class in Buenos Aires and beyond: "There is hunger and there is no way to feed the family. People are tired, today we could have fun, but we are here to protest towards the politicians corrupt." In Argentina, inflation is 60%. pic.twitter.com/PveNmb2rof
— RadioGenova (@RadioGenova) July 10, 2022
Although mostly non-violent in nature, a moment of escalation erupted as protesters hung from the Casa Rosada fence, screaming at the agents inside, following which police security was reinforced.
Several opposition leaders—including Together for Change deputies Hernán Lombardi and Silvia Lospennato, and Frente de Izquierda deputies Myriam Bregman, Nicolás del Caño, and Alejandro Vilca—from were prominent figures in the protest. Bregman condemned the IMF plan as “inflationary and deliberately recessive.”
No vamos a regalar la Argentina que adoramos a los populistas y demagogos que la destruyen cotidianamente.
— Hernán Lombardi (@herlombardi) July 9, 2022
Desde el Obelisco se afirma el patriotismo que dice: Basta! pic.twitter.com/MCXU1t7FNE
However, addressing the nation in his Independence Day speech at Casa Histórica in Tucumán, President Fernández condemned the demonstrators as “prophets of hatred,” and called for “strengthening unity,” stating that “with a divided people, a few scoundrels win and millions sink into marginalisation and poverty.”
He acknowledged the persistent inflationary pressures and low foreign currency reserves as “seriously damaging” for the nation, but affirmed that his government is on the path “towards fiscal balance and stabilising the currency.”
Decades-long economic woes in the South American country have been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, reflected in a massive devaluation of the peso, rising gas import bill, and shortages of essential commodities that have triggered panic buying over the last week.
#DíaDeLaIndependencia🇦🇷
— Alberto Fernández (@alferdez) July 9, 2022
Cuando un Gobierno popular puja con los intereses económicos para defender la distribución de la riqueza y la alegría del pueblo, se desatan las fuerzas del desánimo para desunirnos.
No lo van a lograr. #PatriaLibreYSoberana
🔹 https://t.co/o5e2OSvC9Z pic.twitter.com/51gItSjtld
Argentina’s foreign bonds are trading at only 20 cents per dollar, and the gap between the parallel exchange rate—at 295 pesos per dollar—and the official exchange rate—at 127 pesos per dollar—shot up to levels not seen since the last devaluation panic of 2020.
This forced the government to ink out a $44 billion debt deal with the IMF earlier this year that mandates stricter economic policies in order to reduce the fiscal deficit. Critics, however, have pointed to the debilitating economic impact of the structural reforms introduced under the IMF deal.
In fact, marchers on Saturday carried banners of “breakaway from the IMF” and “Out, Fund, out,” demanding that debt payments be halted in favour of increased state spending to address surging inflation and poverty.
Juan Carlos Giordano, a socialist lawmaker, described the situation as a “monumental crisis” that is driving the country towards becoming a “capitalist semi-colony in the chains of the IMF which is the Spanish Empire of the 21st century.” To this end, he asserted that protesters are fighting for a “second independence.”
In #Argentina, Pres. Fernandez's inability to rein in runaway inflation has led many Argentines to take to the streets in protest. Today, I accurately measure inflation at 70%/yr. Argentina MUST dump the peso and dollarize NOW. pic.twitter.com/jJCqOXMtif
— Steve Hanke (@steve_hanke) July 10, 2022
Shockwaves multiplied across the country last week following the resignation of the Economy Minister Martin Guzmán, who was the chief architect of the IMF deal. His exit has been regarded as an “internal rupture in the government.” According to Eugenio Marí, a chief economist at local think tank Fundación Libertad y Progreso, has said Guzmán’s exit threatens to exaggerate the “dynamic of uncertainty which Argentina was already in.”
His replacement, Silvina Batakis, an economist, has vowed to stick to the agreement but simultaneously re-negotiate some of its terms.
In fact, internal dissensions have existed between President Fernández and VP Kirchner, who is sharply critical of the IMF deal and of the government’s handling of the ongoing economic crisis. Fernández, however, has denied being at loggerheads with his VP, who in fact led the country from 2007 to 2015, in a statement to C5N claiming that “I may have differences on how to implement one measure or another, but not on the substance.”
However, against the backdrop of the mobilisations, he had told La Nación earlier that “If they continue to screw me, I resign and they all go to hell. I’m not going to call her (Cristina), I’m not going to sign my surrender,” referring to the ongoing turf war within his government.
Marchar y movilizarse el Día de la Independencia en todas las plazas del país es la consigna para defender la República, la libertad y exigir justicia. Como en cada marcha estámos con la gente que está clara y al frente.
— Alvaro de Lamadrid (@AlvarodLamadrid) July 7, 2022
🇦🇷 #9Julio #Banderazo pic.twitter.com/B7wGqRZbL0
In this respect, Saturday’s march may be the tipping point for the government and indeed the country as the inflation rate continues to rise. IMF obligations are likely to continue being a sticky spot for the battered economy, as the Paris Club of creditors has urged the government to honour its commitments to the IMF in order to remain eligible for foreign investments and loans.
Concerns over inflation and debt have also led to widespread protests and uprisings in Peru and Ecuador, which reflect a period of economic downturn across the globe that has been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and indeed the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Protests in Buenos Aires also drew support from Argentine citizens and diaspora in Miami, Madrid, London, Rome, and Barcelona.