President Seeks Crisis Powers in Argentina
- Share via
BUENOS AIRES — President Fernando de la Rua on Sunday appealed to Argentina’s political parties to band together and form a national unity government to confront a growing political crisis.
In a nationally televised address, De la Rua said he will ask Congress to grant him “special emergency powers” to cope with the crisis. He added that he will soon unveil a new government that includes a cross-section of parties after a new austerity program threatened to rupture his own two-party ruling coalition.
On Friday, hours after the government rolled out an austerity program aimed at pulling Argentina out of a 33-month recession, three key Cabinet members resigned and the junior partner in the ruling coalition withdrew from De la Rua’s government.
The defection of six senior officials of the left-leaning Frepaso party has left De la Rua scrambling for badly needed political support to implement economic reforms demanding spending cuts of $4.5 billion over the next two years.
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
