The Argentine legislative elections of 1985 were held on 3 November. Voters chose their legislators and, with a turnout of 83.8%.

Background

Raúl Alfonsín Raúl Ricardo Alfonsín (; 12 March 1927 – 31 March 2009) was an Argentine lawyer and statesman who served as President of Argentina from 10 December 1983 to 8 July 1989. He was the first democratically elected president after the 7-yea ...

's 1983 inaugural had ushered in a new beginning for Argentina in significant ways, chief among them a new relationship between the

Argentine military The Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic () are the combined armed forces of Argentina. It is controlled by the Commander-in-Chief (the President) and a civilian Minister of Defense. In addition to the Army, Navy and Air Force, there are two s ...

and government. Economic policy continued to dominate political dynamics, however, a concern exacerbated by the

economic crisis A financial crisis is any of a broad variety of situations in which some financial assets suddenly lose a large part of their nominal value. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many financial crises were associated with banking panics, and ma ...

inherited from the previous regime. The nation's leading labor union, the CGT was close to Alfonsín's chief opposition, the

Justicialist Party The Justicialist Party (, ; abbr. PJ) is a major political party in Argentina, and the largest branch within Peronism. Following the 2023 presidential election, it has been the largest party in the opposition against President Javier Milei. Fo ...

, and the tension between the CGT and Alfonsín so evident during 1984 (despite the President's populist early policies) turned to hostility after he replaced the pragmatic Bernardo Grinspun for the more conservative Juan Sourrouille in February 1985. Sorrouille curtailed his predecessor's wage

indexation Indexation is a technique to adjust income payments by means of a price index, in order to maintain the purchasing power of the public after inflation, while deindexation is the unwinding of indexation. It is often used to make sure regular paym ...

policy (amid 25% monthly inflation), leading to a sudden decline in real wages. Social discontent was compounded by military objections to sharp budget cutbacks, and bomb threats became frequent.''Todo Argentina: 1985''
/ref> Fulfilling a 1983 campaign promise, Alfonsín reacted to military unwillingness to court-martial those guilty of

Dirty War The Dirty War () is the name used by the military junta or National Reorganization Process, civic-military dictatorship of Argentina () for its period of state terrorism in Argentina from 1974 to 1983. During this campaign, military and secu ...

abuses (in which up to 30,000 mostly non-violent dissidents perished) by advancing a

Trial of the Juntas The Trial of the Juntas () was the judicial trial of the members of the ''de facto'' military government that ruled Argentina during the dictatorship of the '' Proceso de Reorganización Nacional'' (''el Proceso''), which lasted from 1976 to 1 ...

, whose first hearings were held in April. This bold move was complemented by Sourrouille's June enactment of the Austral Plan, whose centerpiece, the

Argentine austral The austral was the currency of Argentina between 15 June 1985, and 31 December 1991. It was divided into 100 centavos. The symbol was an uppercase A with an extra horizontal line, (₳). This symbol appeared on all coins issued in this curre ...

would replace the worthless peso argentino at 1,000 to one. Inflation, which had reached 30% a month in June (1,130% for the year), fell to 2% by August and, though a wage freeze prevented real incomes from rising, these new inflation rates (the lowest since 1974) led to quick recovery from a sharp recession early in the year. Alfonsín enjoyed a 70% job approval rating by the time votes headed to the polls in early November, though he owed none of it to his economic policies, which were supported by only 30% of the public.''Noticias.'' September 12, 1991. The strong showing for Alfonsín's centrist UCR resulted, instead, from the Dirty War trial, a risky and daring initiative which had gathered international attention and was, by then, in its closing phase.

Results

Results by province

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Argentine legislative election, 1985

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a n ...

1985 elections in Argentina Presidency of Raúl Alfonsín