Argentina’s Economy Minister Sergio Massa will run in October’s elections as the presidential candidate of the ruling centre-left Peronist bloc, the coalition said on Friday.
In addition to Massa, Agustin Rossi, current chief of cabinet to President Alberto Fernandez, will also be on the list as a vice presidential candidate, the Homeland Union bloc said in a tweet.
The decision will bar Ambassador to Brazil Daniel Scioli and Interior Minister Eduardo “Wado” de Pedro from running as government bloc candidates.
“Out of institutional, political and social responsibility, our space has decided to form a single list… Our presidential candidate will be @SergioMassa and will accompany him as vice-presidential candidate @RossiAgustinOk,” read the tweet.
Primary elections will take place in Argentina on August 13, and the first round of presidential elections will take place on October 22.
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Massa, a 51-year-old lawyer, was economy minister for 11 months while inflation (114 percent year-on-year) soared and hard-currency reserves fell.
Before joining the Fernandez cabinet, Massa was President of the Chamber of Deputies.
In 2008 and 2009 he was chief of staff to then-President Cristina Kirchner, now vice president, with whom Massa had a bitter feud until they reconciled in the 2019 election, which Fernandez won with Kirchner on the list.
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The centre-right opposition coalition Together for Change (Juntos por el Cambio) will field two candidates in the primaries: Buenos Aires Mayor Horacio Rodriguez Larreta, 57, and former Security Minister Patricia Bullrich, 67.
Both Fernandez and Kirchner declined to run again. Former center-right President Mauricio Macri, who held office from 2015 to 2019, also did not seek a new term.
The winner of the presidential election will take office on December 10 for a four-year term.
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