Massa unveils ‘ideas’:
Lat/Am
Defeated Argentine presidential hopeful Sergio Massa unveiled key policy demands on Wednesday and said his 5 million supporters would vote in next month’s run-off election based on how the two remaining candidates respond.
Massa, whose plans ranged from cracking down on drug-runners to scrapping income tax for workers, stopped short of endorsing either ruling party candidate Daniel Scioli or his conservative rival Mauricio Macri. Massa “The stance that
the two candidates take vis-a-vis these proposals will define where more than 5 million voters place their support,” he said.
Earlier, Scioli’s hunt for swing voters suffered a blow when two of Massa’s top allies said they would not vote for him.
Macri has the momentum early in the race to the Nov. 22 run-off after his strong showing in Sunday’s ballot defied polls and shocked the ruling Front for Victory party, which had eyed a win in the first round.
Jose Manuel De la Sota, the governor of Cordoba province and a senior figure in Massa’s alliance, said the leftist government of outgoing leader Cristina Fernandez had been “anti-federal and authoritarian” in style. Roberto Lavagna, a former economy minister, said he wanted to see “change”.
“Kirchnerismo has done no good for the country,” De la Sota told reporters, referring to the name given to the leftist populism of Fernandez and her late husband and predecessor Nestor Kirchner. “It has gotten drunk on power.”
The policy blueprint leaned heavily on Massa’s first-round campaign pledges and included scrapping the income tax for workers, removing hefty taxes on corn and wheat exports, tackling narco-gangs and stamping out corruption. (RTRS)