Raúl Alfonsín's 1983 inaugural had ushered in a new beginning for Argentina in significant ways, chief among them a new relationship between the Argentine military and government.

The nation's leading labor union, the CGT was close to Alfonsín's chief opposition, the Justicialist Party, and the tension between the CGT and Alfonsín so evident during 1984 (despite the President's populist early policies) turned to hostility after he replaced the pragmatic Bernardo Grinspun for the more conservative Juan Sourrouille in February 1985.

[2] Fulfilling a 1983 campaign promise, Alfonsín reacted to military unwillingness to court-martial those guilty of Dirty War abuses (in which up to 30,000 mostly non-violent dissidents perished) by advancing a Trial of the Juntas, whose first hearings were held in April.

Alfonsín enjoyed a 70% job approval rating by the time votes headed to the polls in early November, though he owed none of it to his economic policies, which were supported by only 30% of the public.

[3] The strong showing for Alfonsín's centrist UCR resulted, instead, from the Dirty War trial, a risky and daring initiative which had gathered international attention and was, by then, in its closing phase.