In Peronism, the internal conflict between La Cámpora and Axel Kicillof’s sector does not cease in view of next year’s elections. This week there was a novelty that moves the board: Kirchnerism could call for a blank vote in 2027. It is on the verge of that.
The trigger was Carlos Bianco, Minister of the Buenos Aires Government and Kicillof’s right-hand man. In an interview in Futurock on April 27, he tried to make a difference with history: “There is an error in comparing Cristina’s ban with that of Perón. At that time all Peronism was banned, and that is why a blank vote was called. Today Cristina is banned, but Peronism is not.” The phrase opened the debate. Bianco proposed putting a Peronist presidential candidate beyond CFK’s judicial situation.
The response from Kirchnerism was immediate. Máximo Kirchner conditioned any support for Kicillof on the “Cristina Libre” flag being the axis of the campaign. Oscar Parrilli, from the Patria Institute, went further: “We cannot reach 2027 with the banning of Cristina. Milei wants to ban her because she is afraid of her.” Teresa García answered Bianco: “They want her off the field. There is no dialogue with the Kicillof sector.” Deputy Vanesa Siley added: “All of us who cannot vote for CFK are banned.”
Behind this rain of statements lies a decision that circulates in the halls of the Patria Institute: if the ban is sustained and Kicillof advances with his own candidate without putting Cristina in the center, the camp is considering replicating the historical strategy of Peronism between 1955 and 1973. In those elections – 1957, 1960, 1962 -, with Perón exiled and the movement illegalized, the blank vote was called as an act of resistance.
For now, the official slogan of Kirchnerism remains “Cristina Libre” and the condition it sets – that Cristina be a candidate or that there is no candidate – is equivalent, if the ban is not lifted, to pushing the Peronist voter towards the empty ballot.
Kicillof plays pragmatism: govern the province, win the election, then we will see about the pardon. La Cámpora plays the symbol: without Cristina there is no full Peronism, and a Peronism without its leader is a Peronism defeated beforehand. Between these two logics, the only beneficiary is Milei.
