In the
1995 elections, then-president
Carlos Menem was re-elected with 49,9% of the vote. The opposition had presented itself divided into two great forces, the
Front for a Country in Solidarity (FREPASO), an alliance of parties that obtained 29,3% of the votes, and the
Radical Civic Union (UCR) that obtained 17%. It was evident that together, both forces obtained an adhesion similar to that of Menem's
Justicialist Party (PJ). The coalition first took part in the
1997 legislative elections in which they emerged victorious against the ruling Justicialist Party. In the
1999 general elections, the alliance put forward
Fernando de la Rúa (UCR), who together with
Carlos Álvarez (FREPASO) as his running mate, defeated Buenos Aires Governor and former Vice President under Menem
Eduardo Duhalde (PJ).
De la Rua (
UCR Leader) and
Vice President Carlos "Chacho" Alvarez (
FREPASO leader) on inauguration day on December 10, 1999 The Alliance presented itself as a
progressive, moderate
centre-left alternative to Menem's
neoliberal government (stemming from the ideologies of the FREPASO and the UCR's pro-
social democracy wing), with a mandate to end corruption and unemployment. However, De la Rúa soon revealed himself as unable or unwilling to tackle corruption and to revive the Argentine economy, which was in a
recession, with innovative measures, and De la Rúa's own conservative wing within the UCR soon overtook the Alliance. In 2000, amid a scandal caused by
accusations of bribery involving UCR
senators and members of the cabinet, Álvarez resigned from the vice presidency, gravely hurting the unity of the Alliance. In the
2001 legislative elections, the Alliance suffered a large defeat, winning only 35 seats of the 127 contested seats in the Chamber of Deputies an only 26 seats out of 70 in the Senate The socio-economic situation
worsened, and De la Rúa was forced to resign by the
December 2001 riots. The Alliance soon disintegrated, its members returning to their former parties or finding new ones. ==References==