Macri kicks off campaigning: 'I'm ready to govern for four more years'

President Mauricio says he is prepared to govern Argentina for a second term if he secures re-election in October against a resurgence in popularity of Peronist candidates across the country.

Macri and his running mate, the Peronist Miguel Angel Pichetto, met Wednesday with their closest allies for the official launch of the Juntos por el Cambios (Together for Change) coalition.

He and his team are "ready to govern for four more years", the president said. Macri's candidates have struggled in recent provincial elections, where Peronist candidates have flourished, regaining power in provinces like Santa Fe and retaining Córdoba.

"Four years ago we received a country that had been devastated", Macri said at the event held in the affluent Buenos Aires neighbourhood of Barrio Parque. During his first term, he added, "Argentina had broken its international isolationism".

The head of state described 2018, when the Argentine economy slumped due to a run on the currency, "was the worst year" for him personally.

"I would go to bed every day wondering how to keep us from falling into a crisis like the one we experienced in 2001", he told the crowd.

The president also had words of praise for Senator Pichetto, once an ally of Macri's nemesis Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who is running as vice-presidential candidate alongside Albert Fernández.

"In the difficult months we experienced in 2018, when struggled to find financing and we suffered a hard drought, Pichetto in the Senate prioritised governability, responsibility and patriotism. That's something I value very much", Macri said.

Pichetto spoke before Macri, expressing his "pride and commitment" in accompanying the president.

"In this election, we're making a choice about how Argentina should be, if it will be democratic or authoritarian, if it will be open or closed to the world", he said in loose reference to Fernández de Kirchner and her allies.