Juntos por el Cambio


Juntos por el Cambio is an center-right political coalition in Argentina. It was created in 2015 as Cambiemos, and renamed in 2019. It is composed of Republican Proposal, Radical Civic Union, Civic Coalition ARI and Federal Peronism.
These three parties respectively nominated Mauricio Macri, Ernesto Sanz, and Elisa Carrió as their representatives in the August 2015 primary elections, which were held to choose which candidate would run in the 2015 presidential election on October 25. On August 9, 2015 Mauricio Macri was elected as the candidate who would represent Cambiemos in the presidential election; on November 22 he won the presidential election.

Creation

Initially, the pre-candidates Mauricio Macri, Daniel Scioli, and Sergio Massa had a triple tie in the polls for the 2015 presidential election. Scioli was the candidate of the Front for Victory, the ruling party at the time, and Macri and Massa opposed it.
The other parties created a political coalition, the Broad Front UNEN. Elisa Carrió, leader of the Civic Coalition, left UNEN and joined a coalition with Macri's Republican Proposal instead. Both of them would run in the primary elections.
The Radical Civic Union was divided: Ernesto Sanz proposed to join Macri as well, and Julio Cobos proposed to stay in UNEN. The party held a convention to decide what to do, and Sanz's proposal prevailed. Thus, the UCR left UNEN and joined the PRO-CC.
The new coalition was named "Cambiemos", suggesting a change from the 12-year long rule of center-left Kirchnerists.

History

Macri, Sanz, and Carrió ran to be the nominee in the primary elections with Macri winning by a wide margin. He won the presidential election against the Kirchnerite candidate Daniel Scioli in a ballotage. In lower-level posts, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta was elected as Macri's replacement, keeping the City of Buenos Aires under coalition control. Alfredo Cornejo and Gerardo Morales became governors of Mendoza and Jujuy Provinces, respectively. María Eugenia Vidal defeated Aníbal Fernández and became the governor of the populous Buenos Aires Province, ending 28 years of Peronist control.
In June 2019, an extension of the Cambiemos alliance was made: it is renamed Together for Change, by adding to Federal Peronism led by Miguel Ángel Pichetto, who would share the presidential formula of space together with Mauricio Macri. In the 2019 presidential elections, JxC was in second place, with 40% of the votes, behind the Fernández, who won first round with 48% of the votes.
In the province of Buenos Aires, Governor María Eugenia Vidal sought re-election but was defeated by the candidate of the Frente de Todos, Axel Kicillof, who won 52% of the votes against 38% obtained by Together for Change.
In the City of Buenos Aires, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta joins the Radical Civic Union and the Socialist Party to the district alliance and is reelected as Head of Government with 56% of the votes in the first round.

Positions

According to the international media, Cambiemos is a center-right coalition, because it is led by Mauricio Macri.

Political policies

The members of Cambiemos were constituted to "promote economic development, the strengthening of democracy and the republican system, the independence of justice, the quality of education, social solidarity, and the personal happiness of the inhabitants of the Argentine Republic."

Economic policies

Mauricio Macri received a country with huge economic problems, and sought to reverse things. Quickly, moved from a fixed exchange-rate system to a floating one, removed taxes on exports and reduced subsidies on energy, to reduce the fiscal deficit.
Macri avoided to use a shock therapy and introduced the changes in a gradual way.
In April 2016, he negotiated with the vulture fund and ended the default to return to the international capital markets.
Until January 2018, the gradualist system was working well, although at a slower pace than needed.
Since May 2018, as part of an agreement with the International Monetary Fund, the government accelerated the austerity plans, aiming to completely remove the fiscal deficit.

Social policies

President Mauricio Macri encouraged the discussion of an abortion law during the 2018 opening of regular sessions of the National Congress of Argentina. The bill, called "Voluntary termination of pregnancy", divided the coalition, that had no official position and let its legislators vote according to their own beliefs.
Mauricio Macri, Maria Eugenia Vidal, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, Elisa Carrió, and ministers Marcos Peña, Rogelio Frigerio, Patricia Bullrich, etc., are pro-life; ministers Sergio Rubinstein, Lino Barañao, Sergio Bergman, Juan José Aranguren, etc.; are pro-choice.

Foreign policy

Cambiemos opposes strongly the regime of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela for human rights abuses and calls for a restoration of democracy in the country. It recognized Juan Guaidó, who was elected President of Venezuela by the National Assembly during the Venezuelan presidential crisis of 2019.
Macri and his Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra supported Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 US presidential election, which was won by Republican Donald Trump.
Macri improved Argentina's relations with the United States
and from Mercosur achieved a free trade agreement with the European Union and closer ties with the Pacific Alliance.
During the first week in office, Macri annulled the Memorandum of understanding between Argentina and Iran, which would have established a joint investigation into the 1994 bombing with AMIA, a terrorist attack on a Jewish organization for which Argentina blamed Hezbollah and Iran.

Presidents

PresidentPhotoDistrictPresidency start datePresidency end dateTime in office
Mauricio Macri Buenos AiresDecember 10, 2015December 10, 2019

Members