Fernando de la Rúa's tenure as president of Argentina began when he took office on 10 December 1999, and ended with his resignation on 21 December 2001 in the wake of the December 2001 crisis.
Election
Fernando de la Rúa was elected on 24 October 1999 and took office on 10 December 1999. De la Rúa ran on the Alliance Party ticket as a Radical Civic Union member with running mate Carlos Álvarez. Along with the De la Rúa–Alvarez win, the Alliance Party gained a majority over the Justicialist Party in the Chamber of Deputies.
The De la Rúa–Álvarez ticket defeated the Peronist candidates Eduardo Duhalde and Ramón Ortega with 48.5% of the vote against 38.09%. In third place, with 10.09% of the vote, was the former economy minister Domingo Cavallo.
De la Rúa ran a successful TV advertising campaign with the slogan "They say I'm boring." The advertisement sought to be in contrast with a public perception of frivolity within the Carlos Menem administration. The campaign was led by Ramiro Agulla, David Ratto (the publicist for Raul Alfonsin in the 1983 elections), and Antonio de la Rúa, son of Fernando de la Rúa. During his father's presidency, Antonio de la Rúa led "The Sushi Group" (El grupo sushi), which was often criticized for its political influence.
1999 and 2000
The public rejection of Menem along with the country's deteriorating economic situation strongly contributed to de la Rúa's victory. By the end of 1999, Argentina's GDP had dropped 3.4%. Unemployment had approached 14%. Although lower than previously, poverty was still at 30%. The country faced serious education and public health problems, and the political leadership had a poor public image.
The Peronist government had left a billion pesos deficit and an external annual debt of approximately 150 billion pesos, which would grow to nearly 25 billion pesos in the next year.
De la Rúa took harsh adjustment measures in the face of the country's financial situation. In January 2000, he raised taxes on the middle classes and upper classes. This policy was part of an overall package intended to improve the economy and attend to outstanding debts such as the Teacher Incentive Fund. However, it was too little to solve the deterioration of the public finances.
De la Rúa also intervened in the political situation in Corrientes province. There had been several months of consecutive labor strikes in the province. De la Rúa replaced governor Hugo Rubén Perie with Ramón Mestre.
On 8 June 2000, Menem was placed under house arrest on charges of leading a conspiracy to illegally sell 6,500 tons of weapons and ammunition to Ecuador and Croatia. A second charge was falsifying the contents of three presidential decrees. However, on November 12st, the Supreme Court of Argentina Decision ruled that there was no conspiracy and forgery and ordered Menem release
Throughout 2000, the De la Rúa government sought to control public spending, lower domestic interest rates and maintain monetary and financial stability. The year ended with a slight decline of 0.5% of GDP and an unemployment rate of 14.7% (INDEC October 2000). International reserves remained at 33 billion dollars and the fiscal deficit was reduced by about 5 billion pesos.
De la Rúa launched the Infrastructure Plan. Through agreements with provincial governments, and with private funding, he sought to perform road, water and housing improvements throughout the country for 20 billion dollars. De la Rúa enacted the plan through decree since, according to Interior Minister Federico Storani, there was no assurance that the Argentine Congress would approve the law as quickly as necessary.
De la Rúa's government asked for further assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and private banks to reduce the pressure of foreign debt. In December 2000, Economy Minister Jose Luis Machinea negotiated a bailout package of about 40,000 million dollars, known as a financial shield.
2001
Education Reform Act
In 2001, De la Rúa proposed the Education Reform Act. The objectives of the act were seen as an attempt to weaken the power of large unions in favor of small ones, and to lower labor costs. The opposition Justicialists' opposed the measure and succeeded in weakening. Negotiations involved the then Labor Minister Alberto Flamarique and union leader Hugo Moyano. Moyano opposed the Act, arguing that it would result in lower wages and that it would be driven by the IMF. Flamarique promised that the national labor associations would still receiver union dues, but this was divided internally to the General Labor Confederation.