Sergio Casas (born 13 January 1971) is an Argentine politician who was Governor of La Rioja Province from 2015 to 2019. He previously served as Vice Governor and as a member of the La Rioja provincial legislature. Since

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

, he has been a National Deputy.

Political career

Casas was a local deputy for the La Rioja Province from 1995 to 2011. He served as vice-governor from 2011 to 2015, under Luis Beder Herrera. He won the primary elections in the local

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 ...

to run as governor, defeating the ministers Javier Tineo and Néstor Bosetti; Bosetti would run as his candidate for vicegovernor. He was elected

governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

in 2015 with the 53% of the vote. The candidate of the

Radical Civic Union The Radical Civic Union (, UCR) is a major political party in Argentina. It has reached the national government on ten occasions, making it one of the most historically important parties in the country. Ideologically, the party has stood for r ...

denounced

electoral fraud Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election manipulation, voter fraud, or vote rigging, involves illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share o ...

, but eventually accepted Casas' victory. The province allows for a re-election, but as he served as vice-governor and governor in two consecutive terms, he may not run again in 2019. He acknowledges both the former governor Beder Herrera and the former president

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner Cristina Elisabet Fernández de Kirchner (; born 19 February 1953), often referred to by her initials CFK, is an Argentine lawyer and former politician who served as the 56th president of Argentina from 2007 to 2015, and later as the 37th Vice ...

as political leaders. Casas attended the presidential inauguration of

Mauricio Macri Mauricio Macri (; born 8 February 1959) is an Argentine businessman and politician who served as President of Argentina from 2015 to 2019. He has been the leader of the Republican Proposal (PRO) party since its founding in 2005. He previously ...

on December 10, 2015, in spite of the instructions from the Front for Victory to avoid doing so. He then returned to La Rioja, to take office as governor. He had a personal meeting with Macri shortly after they took office, and they talked about the problems of the province. They agreed in the need to improve the infrastructure of the province. In contrast with Beder Herrera, Casas received the local mayors and legislators of other political parties, to arrange joint actions on behalf of the province. He announced that he would promote the production of tomatoes. He made an amendment to the constitution of La Rioja, to be able to run for a new term in 2019. It was followed by a

referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...

: only 43.95% of the registered voters attended it, and of those 25.27% supported the amendment and 17.90% rejected it. However, the local parties did not agree on the interpretation of the results. Cambiemos, the main opposition alliance, considered that Casas should have obtained 35% of the vote to approve the amendment, and Casas considered that it was instead the explicit rejection the one that should have achieved such 35%. As a result, they did not agree if the amendment should be in force or not.

References

External links

Government of La Rioja
{{DEFAULTSORT:Casas, Sergio Governors of La Rioja Province, Argentina Vice governors of La Rioja Province Justicialist Party politicians Living people People from La Rioja Province, Argentina 1971 births Members of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies elected in La Rioja Members of the Legislature of La Rioja Argentine deputies 2019–2021 Argentine deputies 2021–2023 Argentine deputies 2023–2025