Argentina-President poses question to farmers.

ARGENTINA-PRESIDENT ASKS FARMERS FOR ALTERNATIVE SOLUTION.President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner yesterday challenged the opposition to present alternative economic policies and said that the country is "solid" to face the global economic crisis.

"It would be good that those who question the model tell us, without attacks, which would be the alternative they have to this idea that we started carrying out back in 2003," the President said at the inauguration of an industrial park in La Matanza, Buenos Aires province.

"They should tell us without attacks, but through policies, what concrete measures or instruments they would use so that the political debate that society and the world needs is improved," she added.

The President, who was joined by head of the Peronist party Néstor Kirchner, Buenos Aires Governor Daniel Scioli and La Matanza Mayor Fernando Espinoza, seized the ceremony to defend the Kirchnerite economic model and slam the opposition.

"Where are those political parties that protested because the state intervened and said that we had to deregulate because the market would solve everything? Where are the widows of the Washington Consensus?," she said, referring to the economic model implemented in the 1990s.

"How would Argentina be today if we had cooled down the economy as was proposed by national and international economic gurus, some of which today are candidates?," the President wondered, apparently referring to economist Alfonso Prat Gay, who will head the Civic Coalition’s ticket of national deputies for Buenos Aires City.

Fernández de Kirchner emphasized that March’s tax revenue increased 23 percent "in a world where tax revenues are falling," and highlighted that 107,000 workers were legally hired by their employers through a regularization plan launched by the government.

"Nobody is armoured (in face of the international crisis), it would be arrogant and foolish to say so," she said, and added that Argentina "is much better positioned and more solid" than other countries of the world. She said this was due to the strength of the domestic market.

The opposition later responded to the President saying that they had already proposed an alternative economic plan in Congress, but that they "weren’t heard" by the government.

Socialist party head Rubén Giustiniani said that "the opposition has bills regarding all subjects" and added that they "don’t see any type of initiative from the government to face the crisis."

Civic Coalition Deputy Patricia Bullrich said that the President’s statements are "a farce" and "it is a campaign slogan to say that we don’t have proposals." Bullrich said the "natural environment" to analyze the economic model is Congress.

Dissident Peronist Deputy Jorge Sarghini said that "it’s not true that we only opposed bad measures, we also proposed alternatives."