Juntos por el Cambio

Juntos por el Cambio (JxC) was the main centre-right opposition coalition in Argentina for most of the 2015–2023 period, bringing together liberals, conservatives, and anti-populist republicans.

History and ideology

Juntos por el Cambio emerged in 2015 as an electoral coalition called Cambiemos, formed primarily by Propuesta Republicana (PRO), the Radical Civic Union (UCR), and the Civic Coalition ARI. Its rise was driven by the convergence of anti-Peronist forces around the candidacy of Mauricio Macri, who won the presidency that year and became the first non-radical, non-Peronist elected president by direct vote to complete an administration since the return of democracy. In 2019, the coalition adopted the name Juntos por el Cambio, reflecting a broader alliance that tried to retain unity after leaving office and after the electoral defeat to the Peronist Frente de Todos.

The coalition is not a single party but a multi-party alliance. Its internal balance has historically combined:

• PRO, the strongest organisational core, with a market-oriented, managerial, and law-and-order profile.
• UCR, a historic mass party with reformist, democratic-republican, and social-liberal traditions.
• Coalición Cívica, associated with institutionalism, anti-corruption discourse, and civic republicanism.
• Smaller provincial allies and conservative-liberal sectors, varying by province and election cycle.

Ideologically, JxC sits on the centre-right of the Argentine spectrum, although its composition is heterogeneous. Its key pillars have generally included:

• Republican institutionalism: emphasis on checks and balances, judicial independence, and anti-reelection norms.
• Market-friendly economic policy: support for lower barriers to investment, fiscal discipline, deregulation in selected sectors, and a more open stance toward private enterprise.
• Moderate conservatism: especially on law and order, merit, and an orderly state.
• Federalism and decentralisation, particularly through the UCR’s territorial presence.
• Moderate social liberalism in some components, though the coalition has included more conservative positions on cultural issues depending on the partner and province.

Its ideological profile has never been fully unified. Compared with Latin American right-wing parties, JxC has often been more institutionalist and pragmatic than doctrinally ideological, and more willing to adopt centrist language when competing for middle-class urban voters.

Objective achievements and contributions

Juntos por el Cambio’s central contribution to Argentine politics was to reconstruct a viable national non-Peronist alternative capable of winning the presidency through elections, something that had been exceptionally difficult in Argentina’s post-1983 party system.

Among its notable governance and political achievements were:

• Peaceful democratic alternation in 2015: Mauricio Macri’s victory marked a major electoral turnover after more than a decade of Kirchnerist rule, strengthening the norm that power could change hands through ballots rather than crisis.
• Institutional normalisation: the coalition foregrounded transparency, statistical credibility, and republican checks. One of its early symbolic moves was to restore greater credibility to official statistics after the long conflict over INDEC, the national statistics agency.
• Debt market reintegration: the Macri administration settled the long-running dispute with holdout creditors in 2016, enabling Argentina to regain access to international capital markets after years of isolation.
• Infrastructure and public management reforms: the government launched or expanded public works, transport modernisation, and digital state-management initiatives, though with mixed results and fiscal constraints.
• Social policy continuity: unlike many market-liberal administrations, JxC retained and in some cases expanded social assistance frameworks, including the Universal Child Allowance (AUH) system, preserving a broad safety net during recession.
• Non-inflationary rhetoric and fiscal signalling: the coalition put fiscal adjustment and deficit reduction at the center of policy debate, shifting the national conversation toward sustainability, financing costs, and macroeconomic discipline.
• Broad opposition coordination after 2019: even outside office, JxC remained the most important opposition coalition, serving as a parliamentary and electoral counterweight to the governing Peronist blocs.
• 2021 midterm performance: it achieved a strong legislative result, especially in Buenos Aires Province and other urban areas, limiting executive dominance and demonstrating durable opposition capacity.

At the same time, a neutral assessment must note that JxC’s record is also marked by major constraints and failures:

• inflation remained high,
• recession hit hard in 2018–2019,
• poverty and real wages deteriorated,
• the coalition failed to stabilise macroeconomic expectations over the full term,
• internal cohesion weakened over economic strategy, relations with the IMF, and leadership disputes.

Its objective importance lies less in fully solving Argentina’s structural problems than in having reordered the political spectrum, normalised a competitive centre-right alternative, and proved that coalition politics could unite liberal, radical, and conservative traditions under one banner.

Outlook

JxC’s future depends on whether it can remain a unified coalition or fragment into competing centrist-right projects. Its biggest structural challenge is that its base includes very different identities: PRO’s managerial liberalism, the UCR’s territorial institutionalism, and civic-conservative anti-corruption politics. These components do not always agree on economic adjustment, state size, social policy, or how confrontational to be with Peronism.

In the short term, JxC’s role in Argentine politics will likely be shaped by four tensions:

1. Leadership reconstruction after the presidential cycle and the emergence of new figures within and beyond the alliance.
2. Relations with Javier Milei and La Libertad Avanza, which pulled many anti-Peronist voters to a more radical libertarian option and forced JxC to redefine itself.
3. Internal ideological differentiation, especially between more moderate sectors of the UCR and the harder economic-libertarian wing associated with PRO.
4. Federal competitiveness, since JxC’s strength varies significantly by province and local leadership.

In the medium term, the coalition’s relevance will depend on whether it can articulate a credible governing formula combining macroeconomic responsibility, institutional balance, and some social protection. If it leans too far toward austerity and market radicalism, it risks losing centrist voters. If it becomes too cautious, it may fail to distinguish itself from centrist Peronism or new liberal competitors.

Even with its setbacks, JxC remains one of the two or three indispensable poles of Argentine national politics. Its capacity to influence Congress, provincial alliances, and the structure of the opposition ensures that it will continue to matter whether or not it preserves its original format.

Frequently asked questions

Is Juntos por el Cambio left-wing or right-wing? It is generally centre-right, not left-wing, though it contains moderate centrist and social-liberal currents.

What ideology does Juntos por el Cambio have? Its ideology is best described as centre-right liberal-conservative, combining republican institutionalism, market-friendly economics, and moderate conservatism.

What does Juntos por el Cambio stand for? It stands for institutional republicanism, fiscal responsibility, pro-business policy, anti-corruption discourse, and opposition to Peronist populism.

Who founded Juntos por el Cambio? It was formed in 2015 as the electoral alliance Cambiemos, led mainly by Mauricio Macri’s PRO, the UCR, and the Civic Coalition.

Is Juntos por el Cambio a party or a coalition? It is a coalition, not a single party, made up of several parties and provincial allies.

What happened to Juntos por el Cambio after 2023? It remained an important opposition space, but its unity was strained by electoral competition, leadership disputes, and the rise of La Libertad Avanza.