Forceps are an instrument in the shape of tweezers that is used to help the birth of a baby, when the delivery goes through a complication.
In the Government, the metaphor of birth is re-election and, in the face of the economic crisis, the forceps are unity. There was no other way because, otherwise, the only scenario was the reissue of a defeat like the one they already experienced in 2015, when Kirchnerism lost the national election and also the Province of Buenos Aires.
The unity that Sergio Massa achieved maintains a tense calm that can only be explained in the desire to win of all the ruling party. The candidate works 24 hours a day to add allies or recover the wounded. This explains the first images after the launch. Perhaps the most relevant photo of that movement was the one that Massa and Daniel Scioli took at the door of the Ministry of Economy in the week after the lists closed, to show that the former motorboat was aligned with the strategy of the ruling party. Massa, in return for that public support, stated that he was going to add Scioli as an adviser. He did the same with Julián Domínguez, the former Minister of Agriculture who left the Government when the Tigrense took over as head of the Economy and absorbed Agriculture and Industry. The Industry Minister was Scioli.
Domínguez, in addition to joining as an advisor, participated in a meeting with Hugo Moyano at the ministry, also to show his support for Massa. Moyano was Scioli’s candidate for deputy, that is, he was another who was left hanging after the unit.
Juan Luis Manzur, the outgoing governor of Tucumán and fleeting running mate of Eduardo “Wado” De Pedro, also visited Massa in person along with Osvaldo Jaldo, the governor-elect of Tucumán.
The biggest consolation prize went to “Wado” De Pedro, who was left as Massa’s “campaign manager”, although on paper he is not even close to fulfilling that role. A campaign manager is the one who is in all the details of the candidate, such as the design of the agenda, the communication strategy and even the collection of money. For this job, people with a much lower profile are usually chosen and who are available at all times for this task. De Pedro could not carry out these missions for three reasons: he has others as Minister of the Interior, he does not enjoy the absolute confidence of the Minister of Economy and, finally, Massa already has other people who have been working on his electoral strategy for a longer time.
One of them is Raúl “Cabezón” Pérez, from La Plata, an all-terrain operator for Tigrense, and the other is former Justice Minister Juan José Álvarez, who, for more information, was at the ceremony for La Cámpora candidate in Hurlingham, Damián Celsi. , who will compete against the current mayor and friend of Alberto Fernández, “Juanchi” Zabaleta. Translation: Kirchnerism and massismo are united against a friend of the President. Zabaleta will put up a fight, but just in case he already had approaches with the Buenos Aires governor, Axel Kicillof, who in a hypothetical second government will need allies.
Style. Kirchnerism has a dual way of linking up with its political partners. He is unconditional in campaign and conflictive in management. An example of this was seen on Sunday, July 9, at the inauguration of the Néstor Kirchner gas pipeline, which connects Vaca Muerta with one of the gas pipelines that run through the province of Buenos Aires. Before that, Cristina Kirchner came from reproaching Massa, in the first act they shared after his appointment, that in reality “our candidate was ‘Wado’.” But she switched to electoral mode on Independence Day, in front of the gas pipeline, and unfurled words of praise for Massa. Alberto Fernández only watched them go by. “I had to thank you, Sergio, for the force that you put into the gas pipeline but also for the force that you have been putting into it since you were a minister. The truth is, you took over at a very difficult, very complex moment. You did not wrinkle and the truth is that you are moving forward, and that is always good, ”he sweetened the candidate’s ears.
The phrase “you didn’t wrinkle” was striking. Did someone wrinkle? Cristina Kirchner always demanded that Fernández not use the pen. In a previous section of the speech, the vice president said that a government should not do what is good for the majorities or minorities, but what is good for the country as a whole, and that this should be “the axis that the government management”. Nothing underhanded hints for her former running mate.
Unión Por la Patria has the challenge of living up to its name, because Peronism has a very fresh memory of the last time they were divided. It was in the 2015 election, when Scioli was the ruling party candidate and Massa the other Peronist candidate, but outside. On that occasion he won the opposition and remained four years in the plain. That ghost still haunts them.
