President Mauricio Macri’s yellow balloons — those that floated high during his 2015 presidential campaign — suddenly deflated on August 11. Macri and his coalition, Cambiemos, lost by a landslide to the “Fernández formula” in the polls to officially choose which candidates will be on the ballot in the upcoming October presidential elections. Although the election was more symbolic than consequential — as the main parties presented only one candidate — it is highly unlikely that Macri will recover from this brutal blow by October.

The Fernández formula — Alberto Fernández and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (CFK) — won by 47 percent against Macri’s 32. Four years ago, when Cambiemos won by a small margin, the yellow balloons flew high up in the skies, symbolizing the happy faces of the new Argentina Macri promised: one with lower inflation and less poverty. However, since those heady early days, as Macri himself infamously declared, “things happened” — things that Macri could not solve.

In his attempts, though, Macri brought back the International Monetary Fund (IMF), an institution directly responsible for Argentina’s economic debacle of 2001. Since then, Macri has increased Argentina’s debt by $50 billion, while public debt has more than doubled. Even with this cushion, inflation passed 50 percent, the gross domestic product decreased, and unemployment grew to a higher rate than when he was elected. The economy is in recession, as the devaluation of the peso has made it too expensive to import supplies, while local production cannot compete with global prices given the massive hikes in the price of electricity, natural gas, and gasoline. The primary on August 11 was a clear indication that the Argentine electorate has grown frustrated with Macri’s failure to deliver on his promises.