Two decades of Kirchnerism in Argentina have not been enough to guarantee the future survival of that political current. Something else: its hegemonic condition and exacerbated personalism seems to have left Peronism in a state of defenselessness. Reduced to a handful of county leaders incapable of transcending at the national level.
The lack of an individual or, at least, collegiate inheritance appeared as the outgoing political signal that accompanied Cristina Fernández's will to become the axis of all electoral decisions in the Plaza de Mayo. A role that will surely monopolize while the competition is developing. It remains to be seen what happens if, as many predict, defeat ensues.
It happens that the Kirchner dynasty, due to political wear and tear or the biological course, is being consumed. A process that will not be able to stop even the audacity of the boss of having exposed her grandchildren in the box before the crowd. There is no parental legacy in sight for that throne. Since in 2015 he was encouraged for the first time to assume a public function (deputy for Santa Cruz) neither Maximo, the male of the marriage, was capable of a political construction of his own that does not depend exclusively on the surname.
Something will have to be agreed. The current head of the PJ of Buenos Aires and head of La Cámpora was linked since adolescence to politics by mandate of his parents. At first, he maintained marked ambivalence towards this activity. Hence, until the death of his father, Néstor, in 2010, he dedicated his main occupation to real estate business. Much later he entered public life.
That Kirchnerist orphanhood was exposed in the middle of the celebration. Designed to divide times. Cristina spoke only of the 12 years she alternated with her husband (2003-2015). The government and the current failure would not belong to him. Although she is its founder. Among a hundred VIP guests and significant absences (only three governors attended), Axel Kicillof, Máximo K, Eduardo De Pedro and Sergio Massa lined up in the same row. Around them the boss works with her son to try to find them the highest grossing electoral place in October.
The menu is very limited because the prospects are not very encouraging. It limits Cristina's aspirations of the impact she knows how to provoke with surprises. He succeeded, above all, with Amado Boudou and Alberto. Unhappy memories of the past for her. Will the novelty be reserved for the companion of the formula?
Maximus emerges as a key and dynamic operator in the time of definitions. He spoke personally and firmly with Kicillof. Days later it was Cristina's turn. The governor - also most of his ministers - was subjected last week to enormous pressure to agree to run for president. There was a film in parallel: the graffiti that Axel had displayed in the Conurbano promoting re-election in the Province.
There is a known starting point. Máximo and Kicillof cultivate a bad relationship. It was born from the inattention of the governor to satisfy at the beginning of his administration the requests of the head of La Cámpora. He had to bow after the defeat in the legislative elections of 2021. Nor does the wrong explain everything. There are reasons that the deputy uses to promote his electoral proposal that would sound understandable.
Axel Kicillof and Máximo Kirchner, a strained relationship. Photo: Emmanuel Fernández
There is no work of public opinion that does not agree on something. Kicillof is the one who best loyalties the votes that would belong to Cristina. If, as the vice president affirms, we are facing an electoral scenario of thirds (shared with Javier Milei and Together for Change), that phenomenon would not mean a lower registration. Axel refutes with another explanation: his candidacy would not guarantee the national victory and could put at risk the permanence in Buenos Aires. The Kirchnerist refuge to resist, in case any opposition force finally reaches the Casa Rosada.
Maximus has counter-argumentation. With Kicillof as a candidate for president and De Pedro in Buenos Aires, that threat might not happen. Why? The first name on the list (the candidate for president) drags the rest. Especially in Buenos Aires. In that case, no electoral split would be necessary. Nor would the so-called "Milei effect" be lost, capable of damaging the chances of Together for Change.
The coin is in the air, but it will not fall on one of its faces by chance. It depends on Cristina. Hence all the care that Kicillof adopts. His right-hand man, Carlos Bianco, displaced at the time from the Cabinet Chief's Office by Maximo's action, was in charge of preventing the internal temperature from rising. He made a long story about the benefits of the possible re-election of Axel. He clarified: "If our political force decides that it is better for Kicillof to be a candidate for president, he has no problem in being one." The political force alluded to is the finger of the vice president.
This Prussian discipline was discovered in the box of the Square. The governor of Buenos Aires spent the entire hour of Cristina's speech shaking his head automatically as a sign of adherence to what he heard. The interior minister gave almost no rest to his applause and conveyed a pleasant stance in his capacity as the presumptive candidate. Massa was the one who was most uncomfortable with the obsequiousness of his competitors. He tapped his hands two or three times on several occasions as Cristina gloated over 12-year-old fantasies. He hesitated as soon as he demanded that the agreement with the International Monetary Fund "be set aside." Impossible goal for the minister in the few weeks remaining until June 24. On that day, candidates must register for the PASO. Massa pleads only for the advance disbursement he negotiates with the financial institution. It is what it requires to avoid collapse. Maintain, in addition, the hope of the application.
Nor is it the only thing. In two weeks the Indec must communicate the inflation index for May. Some orders from the minister would denote desperation. His Secretary of Commerce, man of the Frente Renovador, Matías Tombolini, went out personally to supervise compliance with Fair Prices. He said he had found anomalies at a well-known supermarket chain. In all its branches he ordered to paste a huge red poster with the legend denouncing "alleged breach of Fair Prices". Escrache that did not climb until the closing.
Massa's efforts
Other gestures abounded. Massa left a trip to Paraguay to be in the Plaza. He attended the Tedeum in which the President became an unusual speaker. He made an effusive greeting (photo that he took care to divulge) with the replaced Cardinal Mario Poli. Perhaps to illustrate a closeness to the Church that the Pope always denies him. He does not give up: he welcomed the appointment of Javier García Cuerva as archbishop of Buenos Aires. Alberto took it upon himself to vindicate Francis by confessing that all these years he helped him in silence. Will it be so? Has he told him any infidence that would harm the course of the now economy minister?
Malena Massa welcoming the appointment of Jorge García Cuerva as bishop of Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego
The most important milestone, however, seemed to be the invitation he made to Maximus to accompany him on his trip to China. This is not a minor fact in an era of defining candidacies that presents too many obstacles and competitors for Massa. Juan Grabois repeated that he will never accept him as a candidate. It remains to be seen: he was discovered whispering with the minister in the box. Daniel Scioli for once, to differentiate himself, left the chair of the Square empty. He took courage when he assured that he will be a candidate even if Cristina prevents the PASO. Agustín Rossi launches in the week that began. The threats are so many that Cecilia Moreau, the head of Deputies, made a public warning: "We must not rule out that the Renewal Front goes with its own formula," she fired. Pure bravado.
Massa goes to China accompanied by Maximo to try to obtain an extension of the swap while waiting for IMF definitions. Also, to probe whether the BRICS, whose parent bank has been led for a month by the former president of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, would enable some financial aid. The interest would not be limited to the Asian giant. Cristina launched in the Plaza examples of economic models to follow. Far from Europe, from the Germany he dreamed of in 2007, he cited Malaysia and South Korea. Nations that activate a modernization process based on the opening of investments in technology. With huge gaps in labor practices and human rights.
The vice president is skilled at discursive parcelling. There is no news that in those countries the judges of the Supreme Court emerge from the popular vote. The vice president demanded it in order to displace Horacio Rosatti, Carlos Rosenkrantz, Juan Carlos Maqueda and Ricardo Lorenzetti. He mentioned the alleged serious irregularities revealed against those on the Impeachment Commission. If so, it would be inexplicable that it works so intermittently.
The Kirchnerist silence surrounded the decision of prosecutor Guillermo Marijuan to request the dismissal of Cristina in the K money route, for which Lázaro Báez is convicted. The novelty had a good side and another not so much. Marijuan took for granted the close relationship between the lady and the businessman. Which both always denied. More than 370 phone calls and a couple of visits to Olivos. Useful material, for example, for other causes that are under review, such as Los Sauces-Hotesur. Suspicion of money laundering. "The serious ethical imprudence" that Alberto described.
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