The silent work of Sergio Massa It has a double meaning: the first is to ensure the unity of the PJ; the second, to rebuild his political career, after having lost the runoff in 2023. With an exaggeratedly low profile, the former Minister of Economy is becoming a key piece of Peronism, both in Buenos Aires and in the interior of the country.
For this reason, Axel Kicillof greeted him from the stage when he achieved the provincial victory and recognized him as the architect of the unity list. But his work did not end there: last weekend, he was in Santa Fe with the local candidates. The PJ believes that a victory can be scored in that province. “Sergio made many more trips than to Santa Fe. What happens is that most of them do not transcend,” they say in those around him. “It is in many districts,” they add.
Visits.
The Tigre versus Newell’s match served as an excuse. Massa went to Rosario with the aim of watching the meeting that was held on Friday the 10th, and along the way he had a reserved meeting with the Santa Fe candidate of Fuerza Patria, Caren Tepp, that until a few months ago was not part of Peronism. It was chosen to head the list, oxygenate the space and avoid fragmentation.
In the case of Santa Fe, as in Buenos Aires, Massa worked with his local leaders for unity. There were so many differences that they were about to go on different lists. In fact, he insists in numerous meetings that the most important thing for the space today is to be together.
To the meeting with Tepp he added the president of the Frente Renovador, Diego Giuliano, and one of his local candidates, Oscar “Cachi” Martínez. They turned the electoral strategy several times, facing the final stretch of the campaign, and Massa promised to give it all possible support from Buenos Aires.
It is not coincidental. In the hypothesis that they propose in the Renovador Front, they consider that they could paint Santa Fe light blue. The province has a scenario of thirds, completed by the provincial ruling party (United Provinces) and the national one (La Libertad Avanza). The calculation they make is the following: in the 2023 general elections, Massa obtained 29.7% of the votes, with all the wear and tear of the management. Today, that they are opposition, the number should grow. And with a few more points, they would be ahead of the other two spaces. “We are vote by vote,” confesses candidate Tepp.
If that happens, the leader of the Frente Renovador will score one more victory on his account as a point guard. With a plus: Cristina Kirchner had tried to force unity in the provincial votes, imposing a candidate who ended up saying no and going outside. She would succeed where the former president failed.
Santa Fe is not the only place where Massa provides assistance: in Córdoba he supports Natalia de la Sota. She did not appear publicly with the daughter of the former governor, but the leader has recognized the close relationship between the two. The motivation of the leader of the Frente Renovador is twofold: to leverage the young leader, on the one hand, and to contest the election against Juan Schiaretti on the other.
The relationship between the two is very bad: it deteriorated after they tried to consolidate national spaces that did not work, but it was definitively broken in 2023. The thing is that the man from Córdoba presented himself as a presidential candidate and took away votes that would have helped the Tigren from win in the first round.
Recognized.
In any case, his biggest work this year was in Buenos Aires. Massa was the intermediary between Kicillof and the Kirchners. From the shadows he worked to ensure that the party did not break up and for that reason they achieved the electoral victory that put President Javier Milei in check.
“They told us ‘don’t fight’, ‘go together’. One of the most important architects of the unity that is expressed in the Fuerza Patria ballot is Sergio Massa,” the Buenos Aires governor said in his closing campaign speech. The leader of the Frente Renovador thanked him excitedly.
But the good harmony with Kicillof could have an expiration date. The governor is a candidate for the presidential elections of ’27. Without possible re-election in the Province, he has no other option. Massa says that there is a long way to go until that moment, that it is a mistake to think about that, but he will be tempted to seek revenge against Milei. The aspirations of both are going to cross them.
For now, the Tigrense is committed to working without showing himself, giving air to his image. Trying to recover from the blow of ’23. He does not give interviews and barely appears on Twitter: he writes a handful of tweets per month and retweets as many. A little more active is her Instagram account, where she mixes politics with personal issues, such as birthday greetings to her children. That’s what his public activity is reduced to.
His schedule is still tight. It is filled with meetings to work on its space in particular and on Peronism in general. Never since he burst into the national leadership has he spent so much time in the shadows and doing the dirty work of politics, which does not have him as the protagonist. But he found a good place to rebuild. If Fuerza Patria does well in the elections, it will be noted as a fundamental part of the victory.
