Argentine farmers see political shake-up

By Helen Popper and Nicolas Misculin

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentine farmers see the government losing its congressional majority in next month's mid-term election, dimming the possibility of fresh tax protests in the countryside, a farm leader said on Wednesday.

Mario Llambias, leader of one of Argentina's biggest farming groups, said he did not expect a repeat of the strikes and roadblocks that have rattled local financial markets and tested President Cristina Fernandez during the last year.

"I don't think we'll repeat that," Llambias told the Reuters Latin American Investment Summit in Buenos Aires.

Llambias heads the Argentine Rural Confederations, or CRA by its Spanish initials, which was among the four farmers' associations that led a year of protests against Fernandez's farming policy and particularly the taxes on soy shipments.

"The main change, which is already assured, will be the composition of the lower house," said Llambias, a fierce critic of Fernandez's center-left administration. "(The ruling party) will lose its majority, at least in the lower house."

Fernandez's allies hold a majority in both houses of Congress, meaning they have been able to block an opposition-led proposal to cut the export taxes that have fueled more than a year of farmer protests.

Polls, however, show the ruling Peronist party likely to lose seats even if it maintains control of Congress.

Farmers have halted their protests in the run-up to a key midterm election on June 28, which they hope will force a weakened government to make concessions and give their political allies more influence.