The political year of Axel Kicillof It began on Wednesday the 14th. The governor of Buenos Aires appeared publicly again. He did it on the Argentine coast and with a plan that is already detailed: visit the cities where Argentines spend their summers and hit Javier Milei hard to return to the center of the ring.
Kicillof has a double challenge. The first, in the long term, is to continue consolidating itself as the President’s favorite rival, so that he wins his presidential candidacy in 2027. The second, in the short term, stay with the Buenos Aires PJ, relegating Máximo Kirchner. He has intense work ahead of him this summer.
In the ring.
The first movement was a meeting with businessmen and producers in Mar de Ajó. His team brought together a hundred representatives from different sectors to evaluate the season on the Coast, in particular, and the economic direction of the Milei model, in general.
Of course, the conclusions could be guessed: “They try to convince businessmen and merchants that they are doing poorly because they are not trying hard enough, but it is a lie: the drop in activity is the result of a deliberate plan to attack production, industry and work,” the governor said at the meeting.
It was not his only activity. Afterwards he moved to Villa Gesell to inaugurate the Summer Conferences, a series of talks with which he will tour all the Buenos Aires tourist destinations. It also served to show its political structure. Many of the mayors and officials that make up the Right to the Future Movement were present at the Villa Gesell Golf Club.
Kicillof gave a speech. And again he pointed at Milei: che ratified his monetary policy, He reproached what he considered the “financial scam” and protested the Nation’s debt to the Province.
But he focused, above all, on the summer season: “These days they said record tourism and occupancy. The problem is that one followed (the news) and said: record occupancy in Brazil and record occupancy in Punta del Este,” he shot. And he concluded: “You look at the numbers of the Province of Buenos Aires, with the beauties it has, and the truth is that we, the businessmen, the vacationers, the ones who govern. What changed has a name and surname: Javier Milei.”
Kicillof threw the bait waiting for a reaction. And the Government stung. The Secretary of Communication, Javier Lanari, posted a photo of Mar del Plata full of tourists. And he wrote: “Now they want to establish that the Argentine coast is full only on weekends. But this is what Mardel looks like on a Wednesday. The success of the season bothers them. Another K operetta less…”, he wrote on Twitter. Milei retweeted him.
In Villa Gesell, and as part of a choreography rehearsed in detail, the outcry over Kicillof also subtly began. The president of Banco Provincia, Juan Cuattromo, did so at the end of his speech: “We are entering what we believe are the last two years of this government,” he said. And he completed: “Know that our governor is going to work to offer Argentines an alternative that allows us to have a future for all in 2027.”
The landings in the Province are going to extend during the summer. NEWS accessed the governor’s agenda which states that, starting in the second fortnight, he will alternate between a productive meeting and a summer conference. The third week of January will repeat the meeting with businessmen in Chascomús. Next time, he will give a talk in San Pedro. The objective, always the same: to provoke the President so that Milei puts him in the ring.
Internal.
Kicillof’s other challenge is doors inside the party. He opted for his vice president, Verónica Magario, to take the Buenos Aires PJ from Máximo Kirchner.
The maximum objective is that there are no internal ones. Be able to negotiate with La Cámpora a unity scheme that avoids wear and tear. This is what many leaders who look at the fight between Kicillof and Máximo from the outside prefer. That will only be certain at midnight on February 7, when the deadline for presenting candidates expires. And it will be decisive to know if the second month of the year is filled with fury or calm, in view of the election that will be held on March 15.
In his first public appearance of 2026, Kicillof sat Magario next to him in both activities. And he left a message for Máximo Kirchner: “The next president of the party has to be aligned with the governor,” he said. And he added: “We cannot go through a story like the one we experienced in recent years again.”
The Buenos Aires president started the year making noise. He will try to remain in the public discussion as the alternative to the President, so that no one has doubts, neither inside nor outside the PJ, that he should be the candidate who confronts Milei in 2027. With that objective in mind, the debut on the Coast was auspicious: the clamor operation began, it gave the messages it wanted to give and already achieved the reaction of the Government.
