Cristina Kirchner again said clearly that she will not be a candidate this year. The announcement, dedicated to cutting off the requests of the leaders of Kirchnerism to head the official ticket, has an immediate effect that cannot be hidden for the Frente de Todos, but, above all, it is destined to have more lasting consequences, even in the rest of the political system and, especially if the forecasts that indicate that the ruling party will be defeated are corroborated. Therefore, the question is not what Cristina will do between now and the election, but what she intends to do after the election.
What power would Cristina have in the opposition? It is impossible to know the answer to that question without knowing the result of the October vote, but Kirchnerism is embarked on getting, as anyone can assume, a platform as wide as possible so that the landing back to the plain is pleasant.
Kirchnerist militants went to the doors of the C5N channel to wait for Cristina Kirchner.Photos: Martín Bonetto
In order to maintain that project, Cristina needs to get a candidate for president as competitive as possible. Even if he thinks he can't win, he does need that candidate to push the legislative lists. In Buenos Aires – the district where Kirchnerism gets the most votes – 35 national deputies and the three national senators will be elected this year.
It is a decisive number for any political sector that wants to govern or make an opposition with the capacity to influence the agenda, and that is why it weakens the idea of Axel Kicillof to split the provincial general elections of the national election. Separating the two votes would not only mean admitting that the fight for the presidency is lost: it would also mean sending the candidates for senators or national deputies to death.
Cristina's communicative side
Cristina will chain these days an extremely communicative period if one takes into account the minimalist style she embraced since leaving the presidency in 2015. He published a letter on Tuesday, gave an interview on Thursday and will give a speech next Thursday in the Plaza de Mayo, in an act convened to remember the 20 years of the election that ended up taking Néstor Kirchner to the Casa Rosada in 2003.
His idea is to make it clear that, even without heading a ballot, he will dedicate himself to nailing the guardrails among which Kirchnerism must circulate in the coming years. The Frente de Todos government disoriented several in this regard, because it never formulated an understandable project, but a stainless vector was respected: strategic decisions were left in the hands of Cristina Kirchner.
In her appearances, Cristina is also dedicated to talking about the assassination attempt she suffered in front of her house in Recoleta. That judicial investigation made it clear that this very serious failed attack was committed by a group of marginalized people with no connections to politics, let alone parties competing in elections. The vice president, whose speech permanently needs the fuel of the epic, does not accept that explanation and seeks to make the most of that event. His problem is that he says it alone: almost no politician talks about it, simply because society stopped caring about the issue, or already cares very little.