Local election a bad omen for Fernández in Argentina

A gubernatorial election in Corrientes Province wouldn’t ordinarily make that much noise outside of northeastern Argentina. But the shooting of a provincial Peronist lawmaker last Thursday — followed by a landslide anti-Peronist victory on Sunday — have turned Governor Gustavo Valdés’ re-election into a story of significant national interest.

With 99.5 percent of ballots counted, Mr. Valdés — a Radical Party politician with backing from other non-Peronists, including former President Mauricio Macri’s PRO party — secured a staggering 77 percent of the vote, a rarely-seen figure in almost any Argentinian election.

With only two weeks to go before the national primaries — and two months until the November election — the result inevitably sparked speculation about whether the decline in President Alberto Fernández’s popularity seen over the last few months could lead to national defeat for the ruling Peronist coalition in the upcoming midterm elections.

“Dear Gustavo, congratulations on the deserved recognition that your work is getting. Corrientes showed a deep commitment to democracy today,” tweeted former President Macri as the results came in. 

Mr. Macri was joined by his ally, Buenos Aires City Mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta — who...