Sergio Massa | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Massa in 2023 | |
| Minister of Economy | |
| In office 3 August 2022 – 10 December 2023 | |
| President | Alberto Fernández |
| Preceded by | Silvina Batakis (Economy) Daniel Scioli (Production) Julián Domínguez (Agriculture) |
| Succeeded by | Luis Caputo |
| President of the Chamber of Deputies | |
| In office 10 December 2019 – 2 August 2022 | |
| Preceded by | Emilio Monzó |
| Succeeded by | Cecilia Moreau |
| National Deputy | |
| In office 10 December 2019 – 3 August 2022 | |
| Constituency | Buenos Aires |
| In office 10 December 2013 – 10 December 2017 | |
| Constituency | Buenos Aires |
| Mayor ofTigre | |
| In office 24 July 2009 – 25 November 2013 | |
| Preceded by | Julio Zamora |
| Succeeded by | Julio Zamora |
| In office 10 December 2007 – 23 July 2008 | |
| Preceded by | Hiram Gualdoni |
| Succeeded by | Julio Zamora |
| Chief of the Cabinet of Ministers | |
| In office 23 July 2008 – 7 July 2009 | |
| President | Cristina Fernández de Kirchner |
| Preceded by | Alberto Fernández |
| Succeeded by | Aníbal Fernández |
| Executive Director of theNational Social Security Administration | |
| In office 23 January 2002 – 10 December 2007 | |
| President | Eduardo Duhalde (2002–2003) Néstor Kirchner (2003–2007) |
| Preceded by | Gustavo Macchi |
| Succeeded by | Claudio Moroni |
| Provincial Deputy of Buenos Aires | |
| In office 10 December 1999 – 22 January 2002 | |
| Constituency | First Electoral Section |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Sergio Tomás Massa (1972-04-28)28 April 1972 (age 53) San Martín,Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Party | Renewal Front (since 2013) Union of the Democratic Centre (1989–1995) Justicialist (1995–2013) |
| Other political affiliations | Front for Victory (2007–2013) United for a New Alternative (2015–2017) 1País (2017–2019) Frente de Todos (2019–2023) Union for the Homeland (since 2023) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Alma mater | University of Belgrano |
Sergio Tomás Massa (Latin American Spanish pronunciation:[ˈseɾxjoˈmasa]ⓘ; born 28 April 1972) is an Argentine politician and lawyer who served asMinister of Economy from 2022 to 2023.[1] From 2019 to 2022, he was theNational Deputy for thecentre-left coalitionFrente de Todos, elected inBuenos Aires Province, and thePresident of the Chamber of Deputies.
Previously, Massa served as theChief of the Cabinet of Ministers from 2008 to 2009 underCristina Fernández de Kirchner. He also held the role ofintendente (mayor) ofTigre twice and served as the Executive Director ofANSES, Argentina's decentralized state social insurance agency.
A former member of theJusticialist Party, he founded a new political party, theRenewal Front, in 2013. As the leader of theUnited for a New Alternative coalition, Massa ran forpresident in2015, finishing third in the first round of voting with 21% of the vote. Eight years later, in2023, he ran for president for a second time as part of theUnion for the Homeland coalition in October 2023. Massa won the first round with 36% of the vote, but lost the November run-off toJavier Milei by a margin of nearly 12%.[2]
Massa was born in the western Buenos Aires suburb ofSan Martín[3] in 1972, toItalian parents. His father was born inNiscemi,Sicily, and his mother inTrieste,Friuli-Venezia Giulia. He was raised in the neighboring San Andrés.[4] He attendedSt Augustine's primary and secondary schools, and later enrolled at theUniversity of Belgrano, a private university in the upscale Buenos Aires borough of the same name. He left school before completing his law degree studies and marriedMalena Galmarini.
Massa became affiliated to the conservativeUCeDé in 1989 as an aide to Alejandro Keck, councilman for theSan Martín partido (which includes San Andrés). He joined the rulingJusticialist Party in 1995, when the UCeDé endorsed the re-election of President Menem after the latter had sidestepped much of his populist Justicialist Party's platform in favor of a more conservative one. In 1999, he was elected to theBuenos Aires Province Chamber of Deputies as part of the Justicialist Party list.[5] Shortly after a crisis led to PresidentFernando de la Rúa's December 2001 resignation, theCongress appointed SenatorEduardo Duhalde, a more traditional Peronist than Menem had been. Acquainted with Massa through Restaurant Workers' Union leaderLuis Barrionuevo [es], Duhalde appointed him Director of theANSeS (Argentina'sSocial Security administration).[4]
The pragmatic Massa ran on PresidentNéstor Kirchner's center-leftFront for Victory ticket during the2005 legislative elections. Securing a seat in theChamber of Deputies (lower house of Congress), he forfeited it at the behest of the President, who requested that he stay on as Director of ANSeS. Remaining at the post two more years, he oversaw the voluntary conversion of several million private pension accounts to the ANSeS' aegis when this choice was made available in December 2006.[4]
Massa was elected Mayor of theParaná Deltapartido ofTigre in October 2007.That year's elections also brought President Néstor Kirchner's wife, SenatorCristina Kirchner, to the Presidency. Enjoying large majorities in Congress, her administration suffered its first major setback when her proposals for higher agricultural export taxes were defeated on 16 July 2008, with Vice PresidentJulio Cobos's surprise, tie-breaking vote against them. The controversy helped lead to the 23 July resignation ofAlberto Fernández, the president's Cabinet Chief, and to his replacement with Sergio Massa who, at 36, became the youngest person to hold the influential post since its creation in 1994.[6]
He was persuaded to run as a stand-in candidate (who, after the election, would cede his new seat to a down-ticket name on theparty list) for the rulingFront for Victory (FpV) ahead of theJune 2009 mid-term elections. Massa, however, enlisted his own candidates (including his wife) for the Tigre City Council under his own ticket, and its success in these city council races distanced him from others in the FpV. Massa had, moreover, harbored differences with the president over a number of policies, including the nationalization of loss-producing private pension funds, the use of theINDEC bureau to understate inflation data, and the vast regulatory powers granted to Commerce SecretaryGuillermo Moreno.[7] Following the FpV's narrow defeat in the Chamber of Deputies mid-term races, Massa tendered his resignation to the President, effective 7 July. Massa, who appointed the city council president as provisional mayor while he served as the president's cabinet chief, returned to his office of Mayor of Tigre on 24 July.[7] He was investigated along with other officials for the illegal retention of "repayments" of nonexistent loans from the pensions of about 17 thousand retired while he was director of the ANSES[8]
In 2010, Massa joined a group of eightBuenos Aires Province mayors in calling for the establishment of local police departments independent of theProvincial Police;[9] this 'Group of 8' had become disaffected to varying degrees with the Kirchner government, and came to view Massa as presidential timber for a future date.[10] He stumbled into controversy, however, when theWikiLeaks disclosures of 2010 mentioned a number of indiscretions on Massa's part during a dinner hosted the previous year at theU.S. Ambassador's Residence. He was said by one of AmbassadorVilma Socorro Martínez's cables to have revealed details about working with former PresidentNéstor Kirchner, stating that he was "a psychopath; a monster whose bully approach to politics shows his sense of inferiority." He reportedly added that the former president "runs the Argentine government" while his wife (the President) "followed orders," and that she "would be better off without him."[11] He nevertheless remained allied as a member of the FpV faction and the Cristina Kirchner administration, and was re-elected mayor on the FpV slate with 73% of the vote in 2011.[3]
Polling ahead of theOctober 2013 mid-term elections gave Massa better prospects running for Congress under the FpV party list than on a separate slate.[12] Upon the filing deadline on 22 June, however, Massa ultimately opted to form his ownFrente Renovador ('Renewal Front') faction with the support of the 'Group of 8' Buenos Aires Province Mayors and others, notably formerArgentine Industrial Union presidentJosé Ignacio de Mendiguren (recently an ally ofKirchner).[13][14] This split with Kirchner proved successful for Massa as the Renewal Front slate beat the FpV slate in the Buenos Aires province in both the primary and general elections.[15][16]
In October 2013, Javier Corradino, president of the Commercial Chamber of Tigre, Adrian Zolezzi, secretary of the same entity, and Santiago Maneiro, secretary of the Commercial Chamber of Pacheco, reported that four of their shops had been closed by Sergio Massa in retaliation for having made a trade agreement with the National Social Security Administration to operate the Argenta card, administered by ANSeS. They denounced the closures as anti-democratic and an act of political persecution towards traders in the municipality. Javier Corradino was expelled from a campaign of Renewal Front's Malena Galmarini, Tigre City Council secretary for health policy and human development, and wife of Sergio Massa.[17]
Ahead of the2015 general election, Massa announced his intention to run for President of Argentina.[18] He joined forces withCórdoba governorJosé Manuel de la Sota to form theUnited for a New Alternative alliance.[19] Massa sought to appeal to centrist voters in an election disputed by the PeronistDaniel Scioli and the centre-right conservativeMauricio Macri, and focused his campaign on the fight against corruption, climate change, and development through renewable energy sources.[20][21] In the first round of voting, on 25 October 2015, Massa was the third-most voted candidate with 21% of the vote, trailing behind Scioli and Macri, who went on to dispute the presidency in the second round.[22]
In the2017 legislative election, Massa's Renewal Front joined forces with progressivesMargarita Stolbizer andVictoria Donda to form the1País ("1Country") electoral coalition. Facing the end of his term as national deputy, Massa and Stolbizer ran for Buenos Aires Province's seats in theNational Senate. The senatorial bid was, however, unsuccessful, as the 1País list landed third in the election behindCambiemos andUnidad Ciudadana.[23]
Ahead of the2019 general election, Massa made public his intention to once again run for President and launched "Alternativa Federal", a coalition with other non-Kirchnerist members of the Justicialist Party such asMiguel Ángel Pichetto andJuan Manuel Urtubey.[24] However, following the announcement of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner that she would not run for President, but would instead backAlberto Fernández, Massa stood down from the race and pledged his support for the newly formedFrente de Todos, a coalition of Peronist parties and alliances, both Kirchnerist and non-Kirchnerist. He was then nominated to run for a seat in theNational Chamber of Deputies as the first candidate in the Frente de Todos list in Buenos Aires Province.[25]
The Frente de Todos list won in a landslide in Buenos Aires Province, easily securing Massa's seat in the Chamber. Upon taking office on 4 December 2019, he was elected aspresident of the Chamber, succeedingEmilio Monzó. As president of the Chamber of Deputies, Massa introduced modifications to the chamber statute to guarantee gender parity in parliamentary commissions, and splitting the commission on Family, Women, Children and Adolescence into two separate commissions for Family and Childhood and Women and Diversity.[26] During theCOVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown in Argentina, Massa's administration sought to lower the costs of parliamentary proceedings by suspending legislative aides and restricting mobility benefits for deputies.[27]
In December 2021, Massa was ratified as president of the Chamber for another two years by all parliamentary blocs in the Chamber.[28]
One of Massa's flagship issues during his tenure as president of the Chamber was the reduction of tax pressures on the middle class. In 2022, Renewal Front deputies introduced legislation to raise the minimum quota for income tax.[29]
On 29 July 2022, Massa was designated as the country's new Minister of Economy, taking over three previously stand-alone ministries of Economy, Productive Development and Agriculture in the cabinet of President Alberto Fernández.[30] Massa's designation came less than a month afterSilvina Batakis' appointment, following the resignation ofMartín Guzmán. The fusion of the three ministries led the media to dub Massasuperministro ("super-minister"), a term that had previously been used to describe economy ministers in other governments such asNicolás Dujovne andDomingo Cavallo.[31]
Initial market speculations regarding Massa's first measures as minister led to theArgentine peso recovering against the US dollar, with the unofficial exchange rate ("dólar blue") descending to $280 ARS per dollar on 1 August 2022, down from the peak of $338 ARS per dollar on 21 July.[32]
On 23 June 2023, Massa was announced as the presidential candidate of the newUnión por la Patria coalition, with Cabinet ChiefAgustín Rossi as his running mate. He was endorsed by President Fernández, vice president Cristina Kirchner, and other majoritarian sectors of the Peronist coalition.[33][34] He won a primary election for the coalition's nomination against social leaderJuan Grabois of thePatria Grande Front on 13 August 2023.[35] In thegeneral election in October 2023 he won 36.6% of votes toJavier Milei's 29.9%, but was defeated by Milei in the November run-off and conceded peacefully in what was described as a historic election; he later proclaimed that he would resign from politics.[2]
Massa is married toMalena Galmarini, a fellow politician, and a member of a Peronist political family. Galmarini and Massa met in 1996 and married in 2001.[37] The couple has two children, Milagros and Tomás.[38] Through Galmarini's father, Fernando Galmarini, Massa is the son-in-law of TV presenter and vedetteMoria Casán.[39][40]
Massa is a supporter of the football clubClub Atlético Tigre.[41][42]
| Election | Office | List | Votes | Result | Ref. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | % | P. | ||||||
| 2007 | Mayor of Tigre | Front for Victory | 125,472 | 77.17% | 1st | Elected | [43] | |
| 2011 | 130,810 | 73.14% | 1st | Elected | [44] | |||
| 2015 1-R | President of Argentina | United for a New Alternative | 5,386,977 | 21.39% | 3rd | Not elected | [45] | |
| 2023 1-R | Union for the Homeland | 9,853,492 | 36.78% | 1st | → Round 2 | [46] | ||
| 2023 2-R | 11,384,014 | 44.25% | 2nd | Not elected | ||||
| Election | Office | List | # | District | Votes | Result | Ref. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | % | P. | ||||||||
| 1999 | Provincial Deputy | Justicialist Concertation | 7 | First Electoral Section | 854,583 | 40.80% | 1st[a] | Elected | [47] | |
| 2009 | National Deputy | Justicialist Front for Victory | 5 | Buenos Aires Province | 2,418,104 | 32.18% | 2nd[a] | Not elected | [48] | |
| 2013 | Renewal Front | 1 | Buenos Aires Province | 3,943,056 | 43.95% | 1st[a] | Elected | [49] | ||
| 2017 | National Senator | 1País [es] | Buenos Aires Province | 1,069,747 | 11.31% | 3rd[a] | Not elected | [50] | ||
| 2019 | National Deputy | Frente de Todos | Buenos Aires Province | 5,113,359 | 52.64% | 1st[a] | Elected | [51] | ||
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Gustavo Macchi | Executive Director of ANSES 2002–2007 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chief of the Cabinet of Ministers 2008–2009 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | President of the Chamber of Deputies 2019–2022 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of Economy 2022–2023 | Succeeded by |
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