page_title: Adolfo Rodríguez Saá
section_title: Presidency
hierarchical_section_title: Adolfo Rodríguez Saá / Presidency
caption_attribution_description: Rodríguez Saá en su despacho, antes de la Nochebuena; después viajó a San Luis, su provincia, y volvió ayer a la Casa de Gobierno
context_page_description: Adolfo Rodríguez Saá is an Argentine Peronist politician. Born in a family that was highly influential in the history of the San Luis Province, he became governor in 1983, after the end of the National Reorganization Process military dictatorship. He remained governor up to 2001, being re-elected in successive elections.
  President Fernando de la Rúa resigned in that year, amid the December 2001 riots, and the Congress elected Rodríguez Saá as president of Argentina. In response to the 1998–2002 Argentine great depression, he declared the highest sovereign default in history and resigned days later amid civil unrest. The Congress elected a new president, Eduardo Duhalde, in order to complete the term of office of de la Rúa. Rodríguez Saá ran in the 2003 and 2015 presidential elections, but did not win.
context_section_description: President Fernando de la Rúa resigned after the December 2001 riots that had been caused by the 1998–2002 Argentine great depression. As his vice president Carlos Álvarez had resigned as well months before, Congress called for a special assembly to designate a new president. Until then, Ramón Puerta served as acting president from 21 December to 22 December. Adolfo Rodríguez Saá became president after being elected with 169 votes to 138. He was supported by the PJ and smaller right-wing parties such as Republican Force and Action for the Republic. The Unión Cívica Radical (UCR) and Alternative for a Republic of Equals voted against him. He was replaced in the governor's office by vice-governor María Alicia Lemme, and took office on 23 December 2001.
  Rodríguez Saá got the mandate of president with instructions from the Assembly to call for elections the following 3 March, with a ballotage round on 17 March if needed. The new president would complete de la Rúa's term of office. Those elections were to be held under the ley de lemas with double simultaneous voting, with the victor scheduled to take office on 5 April.
  During his short time in office, Rodríguez Saá announced the creation of a new currency, the argentino, which would have circulated alongside the peso and the dollar. The civil unrest of previous days resurfaced when he announced his cabinet, as it included Carlos Grosso as Chief of the Cabinet of Ministers. Grosso was a very unpopular former mayor of Buenos Aires. As a result, Rodríguez Saá gave up his whole cabinet before they could take office, with the sole exception of Rodolfo Gabrielli, in the Interior Ministry. He also declared a sovereign default on the Argentine national debt, which was celebrated by the chamber of deputies. It was the highest sovereign default in history. Those measures, uncharacteristic of a president with a brief term of office, were rescented by the leaders of the Justicialist party.
  Rodríguez Saá prepared a budget bill for 2002, which was sent to the Congress. It included an important decrease in the deficits, as requested by Anne Krueger from the International Monetary Fund. Krueger also requested a new coparticipation law, to determine the way the nation and the provinces manage tax revenues. Rodríguez Saá called for a meeting with governors in Chapadmalal, but only six governors out of twenty-three attended: Carlos Ruckauf, Juan Carlos Romero, Gildo Insfrán, Ángel Mazza, Carlos Rovira and Alicia Lemme. José Manuel de la Sota, governor of Córdoba, withdrew his support, suspecting that Rodríguez Saá had plans to cancel the elections and stay as president up to 2003. On 30 December, he returned to San Luis with Daniel Scioli and resigned, alleging lack of support from the rest of the Justicialist Party. Insfrán, Maza and minister Rodolfo Gabrielli tried to convince him to stay as president; his brother Alberto Rodríguez Saá supported his decision. In announcing his resignation in a Cadena nacional, he recounted the achievements of his one-week administration and accused Justicialist governors and legislators of meanness and shortsightedness. He dispatched his resignation from San Luis to Buenos Aires, and the Congress accepted it on 1 January 2002. The Senate chairman Ramón Puerta would have been the interim president, but resigned as well, so Eduardo Camaño, president of the Chamber of Deputies, was appointed interim president instead. After new deliberations, they elected Eduardo Duhalde as president, this time with a mandate that would fill the remaining time of de la Rúa's mandate.
caption: Adolfo Rodríguez Saá at his office in the Casa Rosada
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