Legislative elections were held in Argentina on 26 October 1997. The elections were only the second time the peronist Justicialist Party had been defeated since 1985, although the party still maintained control of the Congress.
Background President Carlos Menem, who successfully campaigned to have the Argentine Constitution amended in 1994 largely for the sake of being eligible for a second term in office, won the 1995 election in a landslide. The clouds of recession gathered immediately, however, as Argentine business confidence struggled following the shock of the Mexican peso crisis. Unemployment in Argentina, already higher as a result of a wave of imports and sharp gains in productivity after 1990, leapt from 12% to 18% in the first half of 1995 and, as Argentines geared for the 1997 parliamentary mid-term elections two years later, the figure remained around 15% and wages, frozen at their 1994 level.
The party was also divided on how to respond to President Menem. The CGT labor union, traditionally an important souce of support for the Justicialists, joined smaller unions, left-wing activists and the FrePaSo, who finished second in the 1995 elections, in a series of general strikes beginning in August 1996.
Economic problems also led to a sudden increase in crime, particularly property crime, even during the vigorous recovery during 1996–97. Menem's erstwhile "ace of spades," Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo, whose Convertibility Plan was lauded as the reason behind the "Argentine miracle" between 1991 and 1994 (in which the economy, following 16 years of zero growth, expanded by a third), became unpopular during the recession and strained relations with the President after publicly denouncing the influence of "mafias" within the administration. Cavallo was acrimoniously dismissed by the President in July 1996; but the January 1997 murder of Noticias newsmagazine photojournalist José Luis Cabezas and the subsequent implication of transport magnate Alfredo Yabrán in the crime lent credence to Cavallo's accusations and cost the ruling Justicialist Party further approval.
Following the UCR's poor performance in the 1995 elections, former president and UCR leader Raúl Alfonsín negotiated an alliance with the center-left FrePaSo. Although the UCR and FrePaSo ran on separate slates in several provinces, including Córdoba, the Alliance won a majority of congressional seats in 13 of the 23 provinces and in the city of Buenos Aires. The results represented a setback for supporters of President Carlos Menem within the Justicialist Party and in wider Argentine politics.Todo Argentina: 1996Todo Argentina: 1997
Results
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