Cristina Kirchner usually keeps her silences in mind. In her speeches or her famous reflective letters she has referred to them. Last year, when she was in Chaco with Governor Jorge Capitanich, she said something about this. “We were just driving in the car and ‘Coqui’ told me ‘My God, how difficult it must be for you to speak, because when you are quiet, in silence, they interpret the silences and when you speak they change things and manipulate them!’ It is difficult right? But well…” she recalled back then.
Today, in the middle of the electoral campaign, something similar is happening again. Since PASO Sunday, the vice president has not been heard. Her only appearance on social networks was to share the documentary that La Cámpora made about the attack she suffered a year ago.
In the first part of the campaign he accompanied, with reservations, Sergio Massa. He showed up at different events, aligned himself with the militants of La Cámpora and even gave a television interview on C5N, in which he threw flowers at her. But for his son Máximo Kirchner it was not enough and he asked her, in public, to accompany more. She preferred to ignore that mischief. Andrés “El Cuervo” Larroque, the Buenos Aires minister and representative of the Cámpora, came out to justify the boss with an argument similar to the one Alberto Fernández used when he was asked about the same thing. “She does not appear because she is not a candidate.” he summarized. “The time will come. “That is decided by those who manage the campaign on how those appearances are managed.”
And who manages the campaign? In recent weeks, Malena Galmarini, Massa’s wife and president of AySA, joined the bunker on Miter Street, where the Unión Por la Patria electoral team operates. Galmarini has a primary mission: to give massism to the campaign. What does this mean? Participate in meetings with representatives from the Buenos Aires suburbs, where Massa has his greatest electoral wealth, and also reinforce the candidate’s speech in line with the needs of this section of the campaign.
This implies that Malena begins to have more influence in a territory that until now was dominated by La Cámpora. Namely: Eduardo “Wado” De Pedro will continue to be campaign manager, but from a more testimonial place, because now the strongest agreements will be closed from the fifth floor of the bunker on Miter Street, where massismo works, and not from the sixth, which houses the Kirchnerism offices.
What weight will the Christian officials who worked up to this point have? Apparently everything would be under review: from the consulting firm Ágora, linked to the camper Santiago “Patucho” Álvarez, to the film production company that made the spots.
Another Cristinista who accompanies Massa is Ignacio Saavedra, owner of Complex C, in Chacarita, where the bunker was set up on election night. Saavedra has a better relationship with Massa, he was the one who put together the LED screens for the virtual sessions during the 2020 pandemic.
Equipment. Among the most relevant Massistas who walk the corridors of the bunker on Miter Street today is Raúl “El Cabezón” Pérez, the most important political operator and closest to Massa. It is a kind of umbrella that brings together the candidate’s general strategy and in fact functions as the true campaign manager. There is also Rubén “El Turco” Eslaiman, who is in charge of the link with the municipalities of the Buenos Aires suburbs. Pablo Mirolo, former mayor of La Banda, Santiago del Estero, and current vice president of Ferrocarriles Argentinos, will be in charge of the dialogue with the provincial leaders. Mirolo is also the president of the Frente Renovador. “Juanjo” Méndez, former mayor of Hurlingham and also a founding member of the Frente Renovador like all the previous ones, joined this entire group. That is to say, Massa leaned on his historical collaborators.
This section of the campaign will have a fundamental point: each official mayor will be contacted to see how their campaign went and Massa will join the local strategy. That is to say, instead of sending a message to the municipalities, Massa will adapt to the needs of the place. There will be a Massa for every need. If the mayor campaigned in the PASO talking about security, Massa will talk about security, if it is a district where the countryside weighs, he will speak for the countryside, and the same for any productive sector. A discursive flexibility that the candidate is not afraid of.
For many, this idea reminded them of that 2015 campaign, in which he had a speech for each province and which became famous for the imitation of Marcelo Tinelli’s program in which he was parodied with the “tajaí”, his provincial version of “ are you there”.
Cristina Kirchner’s presence in the campaign will be subject to this new strategy. If they need her in a district, they will call her. Will he be docile to this logic? In November 2021, when she was also questioned about her silence regarding the agreement with the IMF, the vice president said: “Politics must stop being just a show for television.” Now, like that time, she prefers to remain silent and let Massa move – or make mistakes – alone.
