The Argentine general election of 1995 was held on 14 May. Voters chose both the President and their legislators and with a turnout of 82.1%. Background The Justicialist Party had been founded in 1945 by Juan Perón, largely on the promise of greater self-reliance, increased state ownership in the economy and a shift in national policy to benefit "the other half" of Argentine society. Taking office on Perón's ticket in 1989 amid the worst crisis in a hundred years, President Carlos Menem had begun the systematic sell-off of Argentina's array of State enterprises, which had produced nearly half the nation's goods and services. Following 18 months of very mixed results, in February 1991 Menem reached out to his Foreign Minister, Domingo Cavallo, whose experience as an economist included a brief but largely positive stint as the nation's Central Bank president in 1982. His introduction of a fixed exchange rate via his Convertibility Plan led to sharp drops in interest rates and inflation, though the sudden recovery and Cavallo's fixed exchange rate (converted to 1 peso per dollar in 1992) led to a fivefold jump in imports (far outpacing the flush growth in demand). A wave of layoffs after 1992 created a tense labor climate often worsened by the flamboyant Menem, who also diluted basic labor laws, leading to less overtime pay and increasing unemployment and underemployment. Private-sector lay-offs, dismissed as a natural consequence of recovering productivity (which had not risen in 20 years), added to mounting state enterprise and government layoffs, leading to a rise in unemployment from 7% in 1992 to 12% by 1994 (after GDP had leapt by a third in just four years). In this policy irony lay the Justicialists' greatest weakness ahead of the 1995 election. The election itself created yet another unexpected turn. Barred from immediate reelection by the 1853 Argentine Constitution, President Menem reached out to his predecessor and head of the embattled centrist Radical Civic Union (UCR), Raúl Alfonsín. Meeting at the presidential residence in Olivos in November 1993 to negotiate an extensive amendment of the Constitution, the two leaders came to an agreement of mutual benefit: Alfonsín obtained the direct election of the mayor of (UCR-leaning) Buenos Aires (depriving the presidency of a right held since 1880 to appoint its mayor) and an expansion in the Argentine Senate from 48 to 72 members (3 per province), which would assure the runner-up (presumably