The weekend of April 25 and 26, while Axel Kicillof formally assumed the presidency of the Buenos Aires PJ in La Plata, Maximo Kirchner chose to be in Santa Fe. The absence of the leader of The Campora in the act that replaced him at the head of the party was a political message in itself. His words in an overflowing theater in Puerto General San Martín, before militants and leaders of Santa Fe Peronism, were another.
Kirchner arrived in the province with the deputy Florence Carignano to tour towns in the south, but the focus was on what he said from the stage. He pointed out without anesthesia against the leaders who, according to his vision, “ignore” the situation of Cristina Fernández de Kirchnerimprisoned since last June after the conviction in the Roads case and disqualified from holding public office: “When I hear some comrades who call themselves Peronists ignore the situation of someone who was twice president and vice president of Argentina, my reflection is this: with those comrades Perón would never have returned to Argentina, and perhaps he would never have left Martín García Island.”. The ending was lapidary: “How can it be that a president says that he imprisoned the president of the main opposition party and many look the other way, arguing over who is driving? Come on, friends, you know. But no nonsense, and even less lies.”.
Regarding the 2027 presidential elections, he left no room: “Cristina is the first candidate because there is no one who can beat her internally. She has simply been tweeting for six months and continues to have the recognition of the Argentine people”. If the disqualification is not reversed, he said, we will have to look for a candidate who “expresses those interests and awakens confidence in the citizens,” but never one armed solely to oppose Milei: “When they talk about the anti-Milei front, it doesn’t convince me. It is enormous reductionism. It is no use destroying the adversary to win an election; we must build a different option”. And he warned: “We tie ourselves to partisan issues that are meaningless. Ten years ago Argentina went down a slide and never found the sandbox”.
The dart aimed directly at Kicillof, whose entourage summarizes the opposing strategy in a single phrase that circulated among those close to him: “Anyone who is against Milei is useful to me.” The internship does not have a closing date. From The Campora They are already projecting their own candidacies for the Buenos Aires governorship in 2027, in direct competition with the governor’s sector. Peronism that comes to this cycle with two national defeats on top of it cannot, for now, show a united picture.
