ARGENTINA 2021: ELECCIONES EN CONTEXTO DE CRISIS

In this article, we describe the main political events in Argentina during 2021. In a context of economic crisis and citizen exhaustion with the COVID-19 pandemic and the government's response to it, the Alberto Fernandez Peronist administration lost the mid-term legislative elections. Fernandez began 2021 with his popularity in decline and a deteriorated economic and political situation. This further limited his ability to respond to the accumulation of social demands. Moreover, coordination problems within the governing coalition got worse during 2021 and had a negative impact on the government's performance. While the opposition coalition also experienced internal tensions, it was able to take advantage of the government's coordination problems in the midterm elections. The relationship between the consolidation of a bipolar structure of competition, rising levels of polarization, and coalitions' internal coordination problems generate a domestic politics that is unstable in its day to day functioning and in the short term, but relatively stable in the medium term.