The Wall Street Journal - 28.10.2019

A8| Monday, October 28, 2019 ***** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

IAEA

Iran Looms Over Race

To Lead Nuclear Body

The United Nations’ atomic

agency is seeking a new leader

in a tight competition overshad-

owed by Iran’s nuclear activities.

On Monday, members of the

International Atomic Energy

Agency’s board will try to pick a

new director general from a field

recently narrowed to two candi-

dates. They are unlikely to suc-

ceed, diplomats say, in part be-

cause of disagreements over the

agency’s approach to Iran.

One contender, Romanian

Cornel Feruta, appears to repre-

sent a continuation of the delib-

erate, careful approach of former

director general Yukiya Amano,

who died in July. The other, Ar-

gentina’s Rafael Grossi, also a

former top IAEA official, wants

to shake up the agency a bit, in-

cluding through a “firm but fair”

approach to Iran, he said.

The IAEA oversees nuclear

activities world-wide. Its most

sensitive work has been monitor-

ing Iran’s growing nuclear pro-

gram from 2003 to 2013, and

then overseeing the country’s in-

ternational nuclear commitments.

—Laurence Norman

SPAIN

Thousands March in

Catalonia for Unity

Tens of thousands of people

marched in Barcelona to protest

against the separatist movement

in the northeastern Catalonia re-

gion that has created Spain’s

worst political crisis in decades.

Police said 80,000 people ral-

lied, with many carrying Spanish

and Catalan flags.

The rally in favor of Spanish

unity comes after several days

of protests—some of which spi-

raled into violent clashes with

police—by Catalan separatists.

They are angered by a Supreme

Court ruling that gave nine sepa-

ratist leaders lengthy prison sen-

tences for an illegal and unsuc-

cessful 2017 secession attempt.

While separatists have orga-

nized huge marches in recent

years, Catalans in favor of main-

taining century-old ties with the

rest of Spain have largely re-

mained quiet except for an enor-

mous rally two years ago.

—Associated Press

BUENOS AIRES—Argen-

tina’s once-disgraced nation-

alist Peronist movement was

voted back into power on

Sunday as voters grappling

with an economic crisis re-

jected President Mauricio

Macri’s austerity policies,

ending the country’s experi-

ment with policies Wall Street

had supported.

Alberto Fernández, a Per-

onist veteran, got 48% sup-

port in a vote that has far-

reaching consequences for

international creditors and the

future of a South American

trade agreement with the Eu-

ropean Union.

“We are going to build an

Argentina that we deserve,”

Mr. Fernández said to cheers

of “Alberto Presidente” at his

BYRYANDUBE

campaign headquarters. “The

government has returned to

the hands of the people.”

Mr. Macri conceded the

race and congratulated his

successor. The president, a

close ally of the Trump admin-

istration and a favorite with

investors, received a better-

than-expected 41%, setting his

center-right coalition up to be

a strong opposition.

“We’re going to continue

working for Argentines, being

a healthy and constructive op-

position,” Mr. Macri said.

“This has just begun.”

Voters were upset with eco-

nomic stagnation and high in-

flation, which have fueled pov-

erty in Latin America’s third-

biggest economy, home to

some 44 million people.

“I’ve never seen a govern-

ment so disdained by the peo-

ple,” said Juan Pérez, a 27-

year-old truck driver who

voted for Mr. Fernández. “Peo-

ple don’t have enough to eat.

It’s an embarrassment.”

Mr. Fernández, 60 years

old, faces a mountain of obsta-

cles to turn around economic

turmoil that analysts say has

its roots in policies of past

Peronist governments.

The government is cash-

strapped and on the verge of

defaulting on about $115 bil-

lion in foreign-currency bonds.

Facing insolvency, Mr. Fernán-

dez would need to quickly re-

negotiate the terms of a $

billion bailout from the Inter-

national Monetary Fund and

restructure debt with bond-

holders, economists say.

Since August, the central

bank has burned through a

third of its reserves to defend

the peso.

Capital Economics, a Lon-

don-based consulting firm,

says the recession will con-

tinue next year, with GDP con-

tracting 2% in 2020. Inflation

will remain high at about 50%.

Mr. Fernández has pledged

to stimulate the economy

while containing inflation with

a broad pact with employers.

People here won’t give him

much time to show results.

“Argentines are suffering

WORLD WATCH

GERMANY

Merkel Party Dealt

Blow in Election

German Chancellor Angela

Merkel’s conservative movement

suffered another electoral setback

on Sunday after voters in Ger-

many’s East deserted the coun-

try’s mainstream parties for the

fringes.

While extending a yearslong

trend toward the fragmentation

of the political spectrum, the elec-

tion in the state of Thuringia also

confirmed another development: A

widening political rift between the

former East and West Germany.

Ms. Merkel’s Christian Demo-

cratic Union, which used to be

the strongest party in the prov-

ince, saw its share of the vote

drop to 21.8% from 33.5% in the

2014 election, according to pre-

liminary results. In contrast, the

anti-immigrant Alternative for

Germany, or AfD, more than dou-

bled its share of the vote to

23.4% over the same period.

The Left Party, a radical

grouping that has its roots in

East Germany’s ruling Commu-

nist party, won about a third of

all votes, cementing its position

as the state’s dominant party.

—Bojan Pancevski

VATICAN

Pope Is Asked to Let

Amazon Clerics Marry

A gathering of bishops at the

Vatican recommended that Pope

Francis loosen the celibacy re-

quirement for priests in South

America’s Amazon region—a step

that would lead to the Roman

Catholic Church ordaining married

men on a routine basis for the

first time in 1,000 years.

Responding to what they said

was a shortage in the sparsely

populated Amazon that left some

communities waiting months or

years for a visit from a priest, the

bishops asked the pope to estab-

lish criteria and procedures for the

ordination as priests of “suitable

and esteemed men of the com-

munity...having a legitimately con-

stituted and stable family.”

The decision on the proposal

lies with the pope, who told bish-

ops on Saturday evening that he

hoped to respond to the synod’s

reactions in a papal teaching doc-

ument by the end of the year.

—Francis X. Rocca

WORLD NEWS

economically and very impa-

tient for either an economic

recovery or a massive increase

in state support,” said Benja-

min Gedan, an Argentina ex-

pert at the Wilson Center, a

Washington policy group.

“When they discover the cup-

boards are bare it will be a

rude awakening for supporters

of the opposition.”

Mr. Fernández would need

to balance the demands of

ideologically diverse Peronist

factions, a populist movement

founded by Juan Perón in the

1940s. During the campaign,

he brought together moderate

Peronists and the party’s left-

wing base that is loyal to his

running mate Cristina Kirch-

ner, who served as president

from 2007 to 2015.

Mr. Fernández, a moderate,

was once a sharp critic of Mrs.

Kirchner’s interventionist poli-

cies, including nationalizations

of businesses and currency

and price controls. The pair

made up after a Peronist de-

feat in 2017 congressional

elections.

Peronist Wins in Argentina

Fernández harnesses

voters’ economic anger

to defeat pro-business

President Macri

President-elect Alberto Fernández and his running mate, former President Cristina Kirchner, celebrate their election victory on Sunday.

DANIEL JAYO/ASSOCIATED PRESS

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