Executive Branch
The current composition of the Executive Branch includes only the Head of State and Head of Government President of Argentina Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, formally given the power over the Administration to follow through with the interests of the Nation. The President is also the Commander in Chief of the Argentine Armed Forces.
The President and the Vice President are elected through universal suffrage by the nation considered as a whole. The Constitutional reform of 1994 introduced a two-round system by which the winning President-o receive either more than 45% of the overall valid votes, or at least 40% of it and a 10% lead over the runner-up. In any other case, the two leading tickets get to face a second round whose victor will be decided by a simple majority. This mechanism was not necessary in the 1995 election, when it could have first come into use, nor in the 1999 one, nor in the last Presidential election, occurred in 2007. However, it was instrumental in the selection of Néstor Kirchner in 2003.
The Cabinet of Ministers is appointed by the President, but is not technically part of the Executive Power[citation needed]. The Vice-President, Julio Cobos, belongs to the Legislative Branch, since he is also the President of the Senate.
Current Situation:
President Cristina Kirchner holds the office since December 10, 2007. As of December 28, 2010, her cabinet consists of the following Ministers:
- Chief of the Cabinet of Ministers: Aníbal Fernández
- Minister of the Interior: Florencio Randazzo
- Minister of Foreign Relations (mostly known as the Chancellor): Héctor Timerman
- Minister of Defense: Arturo Puricelli
- Minister of Economy: Amado Boudou
- Minister of Justice and Human Rights: Julio Alak
- Minister of Security: Nilda Garré
- Minister of Labor, Employment and Social Security: Carlos Tomada
- Minister of Education: Alberto Sileoni
- Minister of Science, Technology and Innovative Production: Lino Barañao
- Minister of Health: Juan Luis Manzur
- Minister of Social Development: Alicia Kirchner
- Minister of Federal Planning and Public Utilities: Julio de Vido
- Minister of Industry: Débora Giorgi
- Minister of Agriculture: Julián Domínguez
- Minister of Tourism: Carlos Enrique Meyer
Legislative Branch
The National Congress (Spanish: Congreso Nacional) constitutes the legislative branch of government. The Congress consists of the Senate (72 seats), presided by the Vice-President of the Nation, and the Chamber of Deputies (257 seats), currently presided by Eduardo Fellner, deputy for Jujuy Province. Senators stay in office for six years, and deputies, for four.
This branch also includes the Vice-President office (since he is the president of the Senate Chamber), the Office of the Nation’s Auditor-General and the Ombudsman’s office.
The residents of each of the Provinces and of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires elect deputies and senators directly. Deputies are representatives of the whole people of the Nation, while Senators represent their districts. Each district elects a number of deputies roughly proportional to their overall population by proportional representation, and three senators: two for the majority, and one for the first minority. Members of both chambers are allowed indefinite re-elections.
Every two years, each one of the twenty-four electoral districts (the twenty-three Provinces and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires) elects one half of their lower chamber representatives. Districts with an odd number of Deputies elect one more or one less of them on each election.
As for the Senators, the twenty-four districts are divided into three groups consisting of eight districts. Every two years all eight districts of one of those groups elect all their three senators, assigning two of them from the party that obtains the majority, and one from the first minority party. Six years later, the same group of districts will hold its next senatorial elections.
Current Situation:
Following the June 28th, 2009 mid-term elections, half the Chamber of Deputies seats and one third of the seats in the Senate were subjected to the ballot box.
The Front for Victory (FPV) and other allies of Néstor and Cristina Kirchner, Argentina’s progressive ruling couple, secured 113 of 257 seats in the lower house, losing 24 seats and their previous absolute majority (the fractious Justicialist Party, to which the FPV formally adheres, continue to enjoy the control of the lower house since 1989. Among Justicialists representatives, a further 17 seats went to anti-Kirchnerites (mostly conservatives), gaining just one seat from the previous situation.
The centrist social democratic Radical Civic Union, Argentina’s oldest party, allied itself in various districts with the centrist Civic Coalition or with the social democratic Socialist Party, secured 77 seats, thus gaining 16.
The conservative Republican Proposal secured 26 seats, gaining 12 from the previous election. A further 24 seats went to smaller parties, mostly provincially-oriented, but also from the center-left spectrum.
Something similar took place in the Senate, where the Kirchners’ Front for Victory secured 36 of 72 seats (losing 4), the UCR/CC/PS grouping secured 23 (gaining 7), and the Justicialist Party wing opposed to the Kirchners maintained their presence of 9 seats. Smaller, provincial parties were left with 4 seats in all (losing 3); Justicialists (pro or against the current Administration) manitained the control over the Senate they’ve enjoyed since 1983.
Riding a wave of approval during a dramatic economic recovery from a 2001-02 crisis, the Kirchners’ FPV enjoyed increasingly large majorities in Congress, reaching a peak at the 2007 general elections (153 Congressmen and 44 Senators). However, soon after, on July 16, 2008, a presidentially-sponsored bill to increase Argentina’s export taxes on the basis of a sliding scale met with a legislative deadlock, and was ultimately defeated by the tie-breaking “against” vote of Vice President Julio Cobos. That controversial law cost the FPV 16 Congressmen and 4 Senators by way of defections.
In 2009 elections, FPV candidates lost in the four most important electoral districts (home to 60% of Argentines), only in the Province of Buenos Aires by a narrow difference.
Considering the overall national vote, FPV obtained only a very narrow victory, becoming the Congress first minority form December 10, 2009, on. This will be reflected in strengthened opposition alliances, notably the center-right Unión Pro, the center-left Civic Coalition and the left-wing Proyecto Sur, when elected candidates in both chambers take office on December 11, 2009.
Judiciary Branch
The Judiciary Branch is composed of federal judges and others with different jurisdictions, and a Supreme Court with nine members (one President, one Vice-President and seven Ministers), appointed by the President with approval of the Senate, who may be deposed by Congress.
Current Situation:
- President of the Supreme Court: Dr. Ricardo L. Lorenzetti
- Vice-President of the Supreme Court: Dra. Elena I. Highton de Nolasco
- Minister of the Court: Dr. Carlos S. Fayt
- Minister of the Court: Dr. Juan Carlos Maqueda
- Minister of the Court: Dr. Eugenio Raúl Zaffaroni
- Minister of the Court: Dr. Enrique S. Petracchi
- Minister of the Court: Dra. Carmen Argibay
- Minister of the Court: Dr. Eduardo Coudet
As of August 2006 there are two Minister-member vacancies, which then President Kirchner stated she did not intend to fill.