Eduardo “Wado” de Pedro moved to his hometown, Mercedes, in the province of Buenos Aires, an hour and a half from Casa Rosada. The decision had to do with family issues, because his wife is also from there and they were looking for a more “village” life for his children.
This distance from the geographic center of political power was not an impediment to accelerating the establishment of his image as a candidate for president. But at this point the Minister of the Interior has a problem: he is in all the boxes. His speech is that he is working to work where the time demands and that can also be the Buenos Aires government or the vice presidency, but deep down in his heart he wants to sit in Rivadavia’s chair. But there are other actors who may also be suitable for the Presidency. Axel Kicillof is the one who captures the most votes from Cristina Kirchner, but Sergio Massa also appears, who is closer to being a pair of CFK than an heir.
But De Pedro is excited. When Cristina said in the report with C5N that she hopes that “the children of the decimated generation will take over”, all eyes fell on him. He is the son of the disappeared.
The differences between De Pedro and Massa are substantial. The Minister of the Interior flirts with power. Massa is power. “Wado” talks to some businessmen. The Minister of Economy is a friend and political partner of some of them. The Minister of the Interior does everything Cristina tells him. Massa recognizes the leadership of the former president, but speaks to her as an equal.
Is Peronism going to accept again that the vice president imposes a candidate? Or can the PASO mechanism hold any surprise for Kirchnerism?
A few weeks ago, De Pedro expressed fear before some interlocutors about the possibility of being anointed as a presidential candidate. The political context changed in the last month. When Alberto Fernández announced that he was withdrawing from the search for re-election, the minister’s candidacy entered a waiting period and the figure of Massa took over the public agenda. The Economy Minister tried to position himself as the consensus candidate. That strategy first cooled down with the publication of the inflation index for April, and ended up being disseminated with the letter from the former president last week. It is no longer just Massa. In any case it is Massa and someone else. And that “someone else” seems to have the name of “Wado” De Pedro.
Decision. CFK’s environment is one of the smallest in politics. Only a few collaborators know what she plans to do. Very early on the morning of Tuesday the 16th – the same day that CFK published his letter – De Pedro stepped on the accelerator with his presidential campaign and the version began to circulate that in June he would present his resignation to the Ministry of the Interior to fully face the proselytizing acts. Communicators close to the ministers sent the following message to the media at his request: “Wado has two characteristics that make him competitive: his unquestionable closeness to CFK and the possibility of being able to articulate and interact with other sectors that are not from the electoral coalition of the Christianity: the interior, governors, productive sectors and businessmen. This is how it expands outside of that nucleus, but always without moving away”.
This is a worthwhile point for those who observe Cristina’s movements. For those who do not like her, she is the representation of an authoritarian and radicalized politics with a low electoral ceiling and that, when looking for allies, must be complemented with actors who “expand” the alliance to sectors of the establishment and the red circle. . De Pedro is the least tough Kirchner of all. He is an agricultural producer, has a good relationship with Pablo Casey, Héctor Magnetto’s nephew and one of the heirs of Grupo Clarín, has contact with judicial officials such as the Mahiques family, whom CFK despises, and even talks with unionists who do not want to to Cristina, like the gastronomic Luis Barrionuevo. That is to say, De Pedro is the chancellor of Kirchnerism.
Only the question of leadership remains to be resolved. Throughout history, strong leaderships like CFK’s have never had orderly successions. The biggest stumbling block for De Pedro is not his internal opponents, but the weight of Cristina’s figure.
