June 1
Election Day. All goes off peacefully and many feel that it is time to vote in a more stable government to deal with today’s problems like the stable governments of the 1920s and early 1930s. Even so polls suggest another coalition government is likely.
June 3
Election results; overall turnout was 86%.
The parties received the following share of the votes in the Chamber of Deputies;
The Conservative Party 28%
The United Workers Party 26%
National Democratic Party 18%
The Democratic Union 25%
General Democratic Union 2%
Marxist Party 1%
There is no overall winner and the three largest parties have around a quarter of the seats each.
Here are the possible combinations as drawn up by Political News Weekly;
UWP- Democratic Union-NDP 69%
Conservative-Democratic Union 53%
UWP-Democratic Union-GDU 53%
Conservative-NDP 46%
UWP-NDP-GDU 45% (repeat of current coalition)
Democratic Union-GDU-NDP 45%
June 4
Talks between the parties have been held all day in Cordoba with negotiation teams from all parties trailing across the city and meeting in various locations cutting several deals. Hopefully by tonight or early tomorrow the situation will be clearer as both the main power blocs each have a 53% share of the seats. The Conservatives are trying to get the General Democratic Union to work with their former parent party and it seems National Democratic Party talks with the Conservative Party have broken down. As yet no party has approached the Marxists.
June 5
In a shock joint press conference at the Caracaras Hotel in Cordoba the National Democratic Party and the Democratic Union have joined together as the United Democratic Front and together have reached an agreement to form a new “People’s Government” with the United Workers Party. The “People’s Government” is offering continued social reform but with free-market economics to appeal to “all classes and all sections of the community and the population from North to South.” The coalition holds 69% of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies leaving the Conservatives and the General Democratic Union and the Marxists out of power. The two main Democratic Parties rejected the Conservative proposals as unworkable and they had little choice but to ally with the UWP to secure a majority.
The cabinet is now composed as follows;
Vice President (Essentially a Prime Minister and Head of Government) Enrique Pastelle (DU)
Finance Minister Carlos Santinez (DU)
Foreign Affairs Minister Eduardo Smith (UWP)
Defence Minister Vice Adm (ret). Juan Perez Benedicto Hood (NDP)
State Minister Lorenzo Dominique (UWP)
Security Minister Enrique Velasco Rojas (UWP)
Transport Minister Alfredo D’Assi (DU)
Social Affairs Minister Alfredo Sicillia (UWP)
Labour and Industry Minister Carlos Saavedra Lamas (NDP)
Education and Culture Minister Fernando Lozario (NDP)
June 11
Over the last five weeks interest rates in Paraguay, supposedly pegged at Argentine levels, have risen sharply and several Paraguayan companies have defaulted on their Argentine loans. This uncertainty has unsettled the markets in Argentina and inflation and interest rates have risen slightly as a result. Investors scared that Paraguay can not repay their loans have pulled out of many projects and overnight two Argentine investment banks nearly collapsed. This has had major impacts across Argentina and although interest rates seem stable at the moment this has had huge impacts in Paraguay as several other Argentine banks have recalled their loans. The Ministry of Finance and the Argentine National Bank are trying to calm the situation and attempting to provide credit for Paraguayan businesses.
June 16
The candidates for the Presidential Elections are announced today;
Juan Ramon Mugnolo is standing for the Conservative Party, a Conservative Senator and indeed has held a Senate seat since 1927 and is often involved in economic conferences and is a shareholder in two mining companies.
Ricardo de la Rua is standing for the Democratic Union, he is a former banker and he is a founding member of the PHP Foundation and has been an active Democratic Union member since the age of 18 and a Senator since 1931.
Ramon Stellos is standing for the United Workers Party, former leader of the General Shipbuilders and Ironworkers Union and a long-standing political ally of Lorenzo Dominique, leader of the United Workers Party. He entered the Party in 1927 and became a Deputy until he stood for the Senate in the 1937 election and won his seat.
General (ret) Jorge Roca is standing for the National Democratic Party, former Army General, retired 1930 and he joined the newly former NDP in 1936 as a Senator and he has been busy since then on the National Defence Committee, the Defence Spending Committee and the Industrial Relations Board.
Oscar Lujan is standing for the General Democratic Union, a doctor of psychology he joined the Democratic Union when a student and rose to the position of Party Treasurer in 1920 and became Deputy Leader in 1926, he was granted a seat in the Senate by President Garcia in 1932 but left the Party during the South American War and joined Castagone’s splinter General Democratic Union. He currently is Treasurer of the GDU and on the Party Policy Committee and has a private medical practice in Cordoba.
Paulo Augusto Cardoso is standing for the Marxist Party, a former political student he joined several Anarchist groups in the early 1920s and studied abroad in France and Iberia and returned to Argentina in 1929. He joined the Marxist Party and by 1934 headed its newspaper staff and was the political organiser for the Department of San Luis. He was elected as the only Marxist Senator in 1937. Since then he has written five books on Marxism and has voted against every Government Bill since his election.