Broad Front Frente Grande | |
|---|---|
 | |
| President | Mario Secco[1] |
| Founded | 27 April 1993; 32 years ago (1993-04-27) |
| Split from | Justicialist Party |
| Youth wing | Juventud Nacional del Frente Grande |
| Membership |  152,902 (2014)[2] |
| Ideology | Peronism[3][4] Progressivism[5][6] Social democracy[7][8] Kirchnerism[9][10] |
| Political position | Centre-left[11] toleft-wing[12] |
| National affiliation | Homeland Force |
| Regional affiliation | COPPPAL São Paulo Forum |
| Slogan | Otro país esta en Marcha (A different country is on the way) |
| Seats in theChamber of Deputies | 2 / 257 |
| Seats in theSenate | 0 / 72 |
| ProvinceGovernors | 0 / 24 |
| Website | |
| http://www.frentegrande.org | |
TheBroad Front (Spanish:Frente Grande,FG) is acentre-left toleft-wingperonistpolitical party in Argentina most prominent in the 1990s. The party is currently part of the former rulingUnión por la Patria[13] coalition which supportedSergio Massa'spresidential campaign.
The party was set up by a group of left-wingJusticialist Party members of theArgentine Chamber of Deputies, most notablyCarlos Álvarez, and other left-wingers who were dissatisfied with theneo-liberal policies ofPresidentCarlos Menem, including dissidentChristian Democrats led byCarlos Auyero and also figures such asGraciela Fernández Meijide. In 1990, the rebel Justicialists, having formedFredeJuSo, came together with theCommunist Party of Argentina and others in a loose coalition. Álvarez proposed forming a unified party and dissolving the constituent members, thus automatically excluding the Communists, who left.
The Broad Front was officially created in May 1993, when Álvarez along with other members of the party joined forces with when two minor centre-left parties,Frente por la Democracia y la Justicia Social (FREDEJUSO) andFrente del Sur, a party set up by film-makerPino Solanas, joined forces to form theFrente Grande.[14] In the 1993 elections, the party's list in the city ofBuenos Aires gained 38% of the vote and several deputies were elected around the country, including Álvarez, Meijide and Solanas. Solanas left the party a short while later over personal differences.
Representing the left-wing dissident Peronists from theJusticialist Party, were able to achieve unexpectedly strong results in the1993 Argentine legislative election and the1994 Argentine Constitutional Assembly election. In spring 1994, Álvarez led theFrente Grande into a new alliance, creating theFront for a Country in Solidarity (FrePaSo). In the1995 Argentine general election, FrePaSo secured second place, unexpectedly unseating theRadical Civic Union from its second place for the first time in decades.[14]
In early 1996, Bordón, the FrePaSo’s presidential candidate, left the party after unsuccessfully attempting to challenge Álvarez’s leadership. By 1997, the UCR and FrePaSo formed a coalitionAlliance for Work, Justice, and Education, which won the1997 Argentine legislative election, proving a successful challenge to Menem. However, this greatly undermined Broad Front and its appeal - the core base of Broad Front, left-wing Peronists, found it unacceptable for the party to cooperate with the UCR, the traditional enemy of Peronism. As a result, the party entered decline.[14]
In 1998 open primaries, the FG-FrePaSo candidate Graciela Fernández Meijide lost toFernando de la Rúa of the UCR, who went on to win the1999 Argentine general election. FrePaSo would continue the success of theFrente Grande and propel Álvarez to be vice-president of the country. In 2000, the FG-FrePaSo candidate Aníbal Ibarra became mayor ofBuenos Aires. However, De la Rúa's governance showed little shift from Menem's neoliberalism.[14]
Following the deepening economic crisis and corruption scandals, Álvarez resigned from the vice-presidency in October 2000. A few months later, in May 2001, Álvarez also stepped down as the leader of FG-FrePaSo and quit politics, prompting a crisis in the coalition. De la Rúa's administration suffered a disastrous defeat in the mid-term2001 Argentine legislative election, and also led to the collapse of FrePaSo, as the voters punished the party for bringing in an economically neoliberal administration despite promising a social-democratic one.
TheFrente Grande continued to be a force in Buenos Aires politics, but has become largely marginalised with the collapse of FrePaSo; its members have largely joined the newSupport for an Egalitarian Republic (ARI) party or returned to the Peronists under centre-left PresidentsNéstor Kirchner and his wife and successorCristina Fernández de Kirchner.
What remained of the Front swung behind the Kirchners' rulingFront for Victory. At the2005 legislative elections, however, some sections of the Front joined theEncuentro Amplio with other left-wing parties inBuenos Aires andBuenos Aires Province. The coalition did badly and lost its existing national representation. In 2007, members of the Front includingMaría José Bongiorno were elected as part of the Front for Victory. Of its leading figures,Nilda Garré serves as Minister of Defense and party leaderEduardo Sigal is a junior official in the sub-secretariat of American Economic Integration andMercosur.
In 2012, the party had 161,050 members, making it the third largest party nationwide.[15]
The party has a left-wing Peronist background, and was formed by anti-Menemist Peronists, various left-leaning groups and parties such asIntransigent Party, and some members of theCommunist Party of Argentina. It has a Peronist-like personalist structure, initially oriented around its long-time leader Carlos Álvarez.[14] According to one of its founders, the human activist Graciela Fernández Meijide, Broad Front has "a moderate and democratic left identity with realistic goals, such as the improvement of wealth distribution, the safeguarding of people’s basic rights and the restoration of the institutional excellence of the Republic".[16]
The Broad Front is described as progressive,[17] and presents itself as a leftist and "true Peronist" opposition to the neoliberal economic and social model of its historical adversary,Menemism.[18] Its program has also been described as populist, reformist and progressive, and its policies are considered "closely in line with social democracy".[16] The party has various factions, "ranging from left-wing Peronism to diverse ideological currents of Marxism".[14] The main ideological goal of the party is to represent a left-leaning Peronism, in opposition to right-wing factions of the movement.[19]
| Election year | Candidate | Coalition | 1st round | 2nd round | Result | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # of overall votes | % of overall vote | # of overall votes | % of overall vote | |||||
| 2003 | Néstor Kirchner | Front for Victory | 4,312,517 | 22.25 | Unopposed |  Y2nd-R Unopposed | ||
| 2007 | Cristina Kirchner | Front for Victory | 8,651,066 | 45.29 | — | YElected | ||
| 2011 | Cristina Kirchner | Front for Victory | 11,865,055 | 54.11 (1st) | — | YElected | ||
| 2015 | Daniel Scioli | Front for Victory | 9,338,449 | 37.08(1st) | 12,198,441 | 48.60 (2nd) |  N 2-R Defeated | |
| 2019 | Alberto Fernández | Frente de Todos | 12,473,709 | 48.10 (1st) | — | YElected | ||
In Argentina, the president's Justicialista Party (PJ) received 35% of the seats, with the other traditional Radicales Party (UCR) receiving 20% of the seats, the leftist Frente Grande with 13%, and conservative MODIN with 9%.
She had launched her new political alliance earlier last week with support from left-wing parties including Nuevo Encuentro (New Gathering), Frente Amplio (Broad Front), Victory Party (Partido de la Victoria), Compromiso Federal (Federal Commitment) and Kolina — four of which were previously part of Frente para la Victoria (Victory Front).
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