“Argentina’s economic policies are yielding results.” This recent verdict by the IMF on Buenos Aires’ progress with its $57bn bailout programme was not shared by voters, who delivered a resounding rejection of President Mauricio Macri in a nationwide primary election on Sunday. A quirk of the political system, the primary is mandatory for voters and includes all candidates, providing a good gauge of sentiment ahead of October’s presidential election. The unexpectedly large margin of Mr Macri’s defeat — almost 15 percentage points — has confounded expectations of a tight race and shattered the incumbent’s confidence. It makes a Macri comeback exceedingly challenging and may herald a first-round victory for the Peronist ticket of Alberto Fernández and former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
「阿根廷的經濟政策正在奏效。」國際貨幣基金組織(IMF)最近對阿根廷政府在IMF的570億美元救助計劃下取得的進展做出了這樣的論斷，但阿根廷選民並不認同。在上週日的阿根廷總統大選全國初選中，選民表達了對阿根廷總統毛里西奧•馬克里(Mauricio Macri)的強烈反對。阿根廷政治體制的一個古怪特點是，對選民來說，參加初選投票是強制性的，而且初選包含所有候選人，這是在10月份總統選舉前很好地衡量選民情緒的一個機會。馬克里出人意料地大敗——幾近落後15個百分點——打破了外界對這場選舉將勢均力敵的預期，也粉碎了這位現任總統的信心。這使得馬克里的連任變得極具挑戰性，並可能預示著正義黨(Peronist)候選人阿爾韋託•費爾南德斯(Alberto Fernández)和前總統克莉絲蒂娜•費爾南德斯•德基什內爾(Cristina Fernández de Kirchner)將取得首輪勝利。