“It is time to close the cracks,” repeats a group of Peronist leaders as a slogan. Cracks inward, where the party is worn out in the debate between the leaderships of Cristina Kirchner and Axel Kicillof. And cracks outward, due to the multiple fights they faced during the government administration.
That is why the federal Justicialism, which had already met in Parque Norte in May, did so again in mid-June, but in the Interior. Under the slogan of “Peronism debates”, as they call the event, the leaders met in Concepción del Uruguay, Entre Ríos, to present a plan to the countryside, the declared enemy of Kirchnerism since “la 125”.
Warm The organizers of the third Peronism escape personalisms. To avoid definitions and get away from the internal fight between Cristina and Axel, they say that “it is not time to discuss candidates.” But they want to become the alternative to Javier Milei.
It is not an easy task, they start the race from far behind. Unlike the other spaces, they do not have any names with political weight. The highest representatives are the head of the AGN, Juan Manuel Olmos, and the deputies Guillermo Michel and Victoria Tolosa Paz.
To avoid this problem they added a lot of militancy. And from all over the country. They may not be the best known, but there are many. In the Concepción tent they gathered 1,600 leaders from most of the provinces. There they presented the “Federal Program for Agricultural Competitiveness.” A document with eight objectives: The first, a comprehensive tax reform for the countryside that would include a review of the withholding scheme, one of the political flags of Kirchnerism.
The speakers at the event criticized the President. “We have to return to represent those who believe in work, production. That is the challenge that Peronism has,” said Senator Marcelo Lewandoski. However, they had to be updated to some of the concepts that La Libertad Avanza planted and that flourish for all politics. “Fiscal balance must exist,” he admitted. Although he later justified: “But it should be a means and not an end. Politics has to serve so that people live better.”
Armed. The thread inside the country is not exclusive to federal Peronism. In Entre Ríos, for example, Kirchnerism and Kicillof’s Right to the Future Movement had organized activities.
Days before Olmos and Tolosa Paz disembark, Máximo Kirchner led a political plenary in Paraná. “Peronism is not in a position to exclude anyone, it must hold internal debates,” he said at the headquarters of the ATE union. And he attempted a tepid self-criticism: “Understanding that part of this President arriving at the Casa Rosada has to do with the fact that Peronism became very timid and stopped doing the things it had to do.”
Kicillof’s MDF had carried out its activity a couple of days before in the same province. Officials close to the Buenos Aires governor had landed in Concordia to carry out an activity on public health. In less than a week, the three Peronisms gained footing in the province governed by an ally of Milei, Rogelio Frigerio.
Kicillof works hard to re-arm Peronism. Of course, with the advantages that virtuality gives it. He appears at militant events through videos, to avoid having to travel and interrupt his activity as governor. There is a libertarian logic in his idea: if it worked for Milei to campaign without touring the country, he could emulate it. In recent days, he participated in a meeting in the south of Santa Fe via video conference. “We have to put all our energy into preparing for what is coming,” the governor harangued. And he concluded: “We are coming up with a discussion, a debate and a historic election that has to do with the future of Argentina, with the disasters they are causing and with how the national heritage, our industry and jobs are being put at risk.”
The primary idea of federal Peronism is to escape the dichotomy of Kirchner versus Kicillof. But in any case, if the objective fails, at least they will have enough political muscle to stand up to the future opposition candidate.
For this reason, many governors are attentive to this new adventure. Like Martín Llaryora from Córdoba, who enabled Nadir Nifury, his official, to participate in both meetings of “Peronism in debate.”
The next meeting is beginning to be outlined for next month and it would be in the north of the country. They want to convince the leaders of the historic party that there are changes that are irreversible since the arrival of Milei. With all the criticism they make of the President, they admit that, even if the PJ has to govern again, the next administration cannot lack economic order and fiscal balance.
