Former Argentine president Cristina Fernández (2007-2015) made official this weekend her candidacy to run for the presidency of the Justicialista Party (PJ), in what will be the first major internal consultation of Peronism after 36 years.
Fernández will compete for the leadership of the PJ on November 17 against the governor of La Rioja (northwest), Ricardo Quintela, after rejecting a unity front with his now rival and after weeks of internal disputes and preparations that have become a battle for control of the main opposition force to the Government of Javier Milei.
The Peronist approach for the coming years will emerge from the Justicialist consultation. In addition, it will be decisive in putting together the lists of candidates for the legislative elections of 2025 and the presidential elections of 2027.
Peronism only governs five of the 23 Argentine provinces and has the first minorities in the two legislative chambers: 108 of 257 seats in Deputies and 33 of 72 in the Senate, which Fernández has described as an “unprecedented loss of institutional representation.”
The former vice president (2019-2023) also presented the list on Saturday night, called ‘Homeland First’, with the names of those who will accompany her in the vote. They are men who lead the Peronist bloc of Unión por la Patria in Parliament and trusted people who accompanied Fernández during her presidential administration and when she was vice president of Alberto Fernández (2019-2023).
Among the members of the list are senators José Mayans and Eduardo de Pedro (former Minister of the Interior), deputy Germán Martínez, former Chief of Staff Agustín Rossi and former Foreign Minister Felipe Solá, among others.
The holding of an internal consultation arises at the insistence of legislators and union leaders related to Kirchnerism, after the resignation of former president Alberto Fernández, in August, when he was accused of serious injuries and threats against his ex-partner Fabiola Yáñez.
The big absence on this list, and even in the dispute for the leadership of the PJ, is that of the governor of the province of Buenos Aires, Axel Kicillof, who was Cristina Fernández’s right-hand man during her presidency.
“The Pontius Pilates and the Judas in Peronism are no more. We are not choosing between San Martín and Belgrano (Argentine heroes). It makes me noise and causes me pain that there are people who do not define themselves,” Fernández said during a recent union event, which many interpreted as referring to Kicillof.
In the last hours, Mayans clarified that this message was directed at Peronist governors aligned with Milei: “He said it for those who wash their hands of what the national government is doing with the Argentine people.”
And the Judas are “those who are going to eat barbecue with Milei,” said Mayans in statements to Radio Con Vos.
Quintela, the rival of traditional Peronism
Ricardo Quintela also presented his list on Saturday night, which includes representatives of traditional Peronism, under the promise of launching a more federal agenda.
“Thank you to all the men and women who with great courage and patriotism worked, work and will work on the ‘Federals, a cry from the heart’ list to lead the Justicialist Party, with whom we share, as with all Peronists, the desire and the need to unite more than ever and become stronger,” the Riojan wrote on his social networks.
Quintela presented his candidacy almost three months ago and, with the announcement that Cristina Fernández would also compete from Peronism, the possibility arose of a union or that the Rioja native would give up going ahead with his plan, but not a single thing has happened. nor the other.
Now both will face each other in the first major Peronist internal competition on Sunday, November 17, an event that has not happened since 1988, when Carlos Menem defeated Antonio Cafiero and allowed him to put together his presidential platform the following year.
(With information from EFE)
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