The surprising decision of Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner to resign from any candidacy in 2023 after the conviction of the Federal Oral Court 2 in the Highway case anticipated in the Frente de Todos the question of how to define the electoral strategy for next year, while organizations politicians and trade unions are preparing to march on Monday the 19th in support of the former president.
While all the sectors of the official coalition were preparing to listen to the verdict of the TOF 2 and take to the streets with a mobilization against sectors of the Judiciary, the words of Cristina Kirchner herself, who from her office were engraved on fire of the Senate and through her social networks made a resignation to be a candidate next year.
“I am not going to be a candidate for anything, neither for President, nor for Senator; my name will not be on any ballot. I finish on December 10 and I return to my house, the same one from which I left on May 25, 2003 to accompany who was my partner (Néstor Kirchner)”were the words that nobody expected and that many did not want to hear.
“It was an unexpected bomb”, they agree in each of the FdT spaces, where they still do not react to the determination that the most convening leader at the polls does not appear on any list.
The song ‘Cristina Presidenta’, which the militant bases and a large part of the leadership sang loudly, together with the illusion that the phrase ‘I’m going to do what I have to do’ had generated, had made the ruling party grow expectations that Cristina Kirchner could put on the presidential candidate suit again.
This possibility seemed more and more feasible after the act in La Plata, where the Vice President launched the slogan ‘The Force of Hope’ and quoted Juan Domingo Perón to talk about her future: “Everything in good time and harmoniously”.
That was the framework prior to the judicial ruling in the Highway case last Tuesday, which, according to her, she was in charge of warning, “was already written”, so that all sectors of the ruling party took for granted a conviction against him.
Nevertheless, CFK’s decision paralyzed the ruling party while behind closed doors the debate is now growing about which Peronist leader has the best conditions to, if possible, try to occupy the place that the former president will leave vacant.
Already with the role of “leader and assembler”, Cristina Kirchner led a meeting in Ensenada on the same night that the TOF 2 sentence was announced, and there she asked the leaders of the small table of Kirchnerism and Peronism of the province of Buenos Aires to take the famous “marshal’s baton” as an attribute of command, facing the future of the political space that embodies the national and popular project.
This was stated by the Minister of Public Works, Gabriel Katopodis, who maintained that he imagines Cristina Kirchner “leading, building and giving Peronism the content it must have.”
Furthermore, Katopodis added, “Next year (the Vice President) is going to summon everyone to take the post and expand our front.”
CFK’s decision paralyzed the ruling party while behind bars the debate is now growing about which Peronist leader has the best conditions to, if possible, try to occupy the place that the former president will leave vacant.
The second surprise, according to experienced members of the Buenos Aires PJ, was the majority reaction of Peronism that came together again behind the figure of the ex-president despite the fact that she will not be a candidate.
“Peronism is united with the Vice President and that is because her leadership is recognized, since by not being a candidate for anything she could have lost support and yet no one left or carried out any activity to position themselves as a possible candidate,” he reflected. a Buenos Aires mayor.
Along the same lines, the head of the FdT bench in Deputies, German Martinezwarned that “if someone believes that she is going to stop influencing, not only in the armed but also in the public sphere of the great debates that Argentina has, they are belittling her”, which was read as a message within the officialism itself.
But, beyond the preponderant role of Cristina Kirchner, the FdT is going through a situation similar to the months prior to 2015 and seeks not to repeat the same mistakes, which is why the dance of presidential candidates begins to grow.
Until now, without saying anything explicitly, the president himself, Alberto Fernández, has signed up for the presidential race; the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa; the Minister of the Interior, Eduardo ‘Wado’ De Pedro; the Argentine ambassador in Brazil, Daniel Scioli; the Chief of Staff, Juan Manzur; and the Chaco governor Jorge Capitanich.
Re-election of Alberto Fernández
Regarding the possibility that Alberto Fernández seeks to be re-elected, the President had anticipated months ago his intention to run and, in that case, dispute the candidacy in a PASO of the FdT, which at the time generated some short circuits within the coalition.
On this point, in an interview this week with the British media The Financial Times, Fernández said that the issue is not among his immediate priorities. “I’m not thinking about re-election”raised.
Another name that is mentioned is that of the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, a possibility that arises almost immediately since the former mayor of Tigre assumed the Palace of Finance.
Fernández said that the issue is not among his immediate priorities. “I’m not thinking about re-election”
The next steps of the Tigrense will be associated with the policies to control inflation bearing fruit in the first months of 2023, although the minister’s environment rules out that he intends to be a candidate on this occasion.
If the political map of Peronism does not have Cristina Kirchner, Alberto Fernández or Sergio Massa as candidates, Scioli would aspire to register in search of “Rematch” from the duel with Macri in 2015, according to what is admitted in his most intimate circle.
On the part of the Peronist governors, a leader who does not rule out competing is Manzur from Tucumán, who left the province to occupy a position in the national government at a complex time.
In the event that the idea of candidate Manzur does not prosper, Capitanich from Chaco and Sergio Uñac from San Juan are added to the list of governors with presidential aspirations.
One of those who has continuous contact with the provincial leaders and participates in different meetings with social, diplomatic and business sectors is the leading campor De Pedro, who would be the only pure Kirchnerist on that list.
De Pedro, from Mercedino, does not rule out being among the FdT leaders with political prominence in the near future.
Another of the last names that arise from Kirchnerism is the Buenos Aires governor Axel Kicillofwho never signed up for that race because his plans are clear and very advanced: to re-elect in the province of Buenos Aires.
While the names are around, others speculate with a kind of operational clamor for the Vice President to change her mind and assume a candidacy, but one of her closest leaders, the Buenos Aires Community Development Minister Andrés Larroque assured: “Knowing her, It seems to me that the decision is final.”
