Where the Peronist mayors fit in the middle of the internal Frente de Todos

Between the first and the third electoral section, Peronism governs the municipalities of Escobar, General Las Heras, General Rodríguez, General San Martín, Hurlingham, Ituzaingó, José C. Paz, Luján, Malvinas Argentinas, Marcos Paz, Mercedes, Merlo, Moreno, Morón, Navarro, Pilar, San Fernando, Tigre, Almirante Brown, Avellaneda, Berazategui, Berisso, Cañuelas, Ensenada, Esteban Echeverría, Ezeiza, Florencio Varela, La Matanza, Lomas de Zamora, Presidente Perón, Punta Indio, Quilmes and San Vicente. There are different expressions and nuances among the mayors on the political support for the structure of the Frente de Todos and the electoral routes. In other words, some mayors are fighting for the vice-president Cristina Kirchner to be candidate; others continue framed in the figure of Sergio Massa to belong to the Frente Renovador, while a third line begins to show gestural accompaniment to the president Alberto Fernandez.

Beyond the municipality and the mayor in question, political power within Peronism is dynamic and above all changeable. For example, among the mayors close to the president today, there is almost none who publicly “denies” the figure of vice-president Cristina Kirchner. “If she calls us, she knows we’re going”he said GlobeLiveMedia a communal chief of the First Electoral Section.

Something similar happens with Sergio Massa. Although the Ministry of Economy has three municipalities whose control is under the leaders of the Renovation Front, as javier osuna of Las Heras, canter white of President Perón or John Andreotti of Saint-Fernando, Almost all suburban community leaders expect the former mayor of Tigre to be the presidential candidate. if the vice-president is not part of the formula. Massa, let it be known that he avoids this possibility. This is how they reminded the mayors during the meeting they held with the mayors last week in the municipality of Merlo. In front of a group of community leaders and women closest to Cristina Kirchner what has Alberto Fernandezthe Minister of the Economy has endorsed that it is “incompatible” to be a candidate and to occupy the Palais des Finances de la Nation.

Many mayors use a license and hold office in the provincial or national orbit. However, they continue with the political control of their districts and within the framework of the territorial power that supposes to be mayor. This is the case of Martin Insaurade, current chief of staff of the province of Buenos Aires and mayor on leave of Lomas de Zamora. Today in front of the municipality of the south of the conurbano is Marina Lesci; however, it is Insaurralde who has the command button. The provincial official is closer to Cristina Kirchner than to Alberto Fernández. Of the last two summits the mayors have held, Insaurralde said he was present at the one last week in Merlo, in fact with Maxim Kirchner He was one of those who facilitated the meeting. Lesci went to the Quinta de Olivos for the meeting organized by Fernández last Tuesday, as an emissary.

The same pattern is repeated in the Argentine Falklands. The mayor -on leave- is Leonardo Nardini, now Minister of Infrastructure of Buenos Aires. The mayor takes him away Noelia Correa, a trusted leader. Nardini also went to the Merlo meeting which he organized Maxime Kirchner.

They do not doubt the leadership of Cristina Kirchner, the mayor of Quilmes Mayra Mendozahis peer from Ensenada, Mario Secco, of Mercedes, Juan Ustarroz that of The stupid Lucas Ghi. Secco is generally followed by its neighbor the mayor of Berisso, Fabien Cagliardi.

From Berazategui, in the third section, Alberto Fernandez yesterday showed the accompaniment of several mayors. At an event organized by Juan Jose Mussithe mayors have arrived in the nation’s glass capital Fernando Espinoza (Murder), Mario Dry (Ensenada), Andres Watson (Florence Varela) Julio Zamora (Tiger), Barefoot Alberto (Ituzaingo), Fabien Cagliardi (Berisso), Alberto Ramil (Escobar) and Nicolas Mantegazza (St. Vincent); in addition to mayors, canter white (President Peron), Mariel Fernandez (Dark blond). From this group, in addition to Secco and Cagliardi, they also show a closeness to CFK, Espinoza or Mantegazza. This summer, Espinoza decorated passages on Route 11 and Route 2, towards the Atlantic coast, with posters in favor of Cristina Kirchner because of the legal situation that the vice-president is going through. Just as no one denies the figure of the vice president, some mayors seek to show unity and scale by sharing the act with the president and vice president.

This sequence includes, for example, the mayor of San Martín, Fernando Moreira. Although he is interim, he will be the local candidate in the next elections. The communal head in use of the license of the district of the First electoral section is the Minister of Public Works, Gabriel Katopodis. Moreira is Katopodis and Today, Katopodis – although he sits at Fernández’s table and at the same time maintains a dialogue with the K universe – generally declares that we must work for unity. Another mayor close to the president who has begun to show this facet is Juan Zabaleta of Hurlingham. In a strong internal dispute with La Cámpora in his district, the mayor swings between the proposal that Alberto Fernández made to go to a STEP to choose a candidate and highlight the leadership of CFK.

The case of Esteban Echevarría is particular. Since the end of 2020, the mayor Ferdinand GrayHe severed his relationship with the K-universe after Kirchnerism – along with some mayors – pushed and succeeded in wresting the leadership of the Buenos Aires PJ from him so that Maxim Kirchner to be the new president. Gray has since entered into a legal dispute over how Kirchner was elected head of the party body, lowered his profile and stepped down from the leadership. During the 2021 election, Kirchnerism decided not to compile any internal list and to let the mayor manage the option of councilors at his convenience. So far, he has given no major sign of leadership framing ahead of the upcoming elections.

Ferraresi, from the municipality of Avellaneda, is one of the mayors who asks that Cristina be a candidate, that the ban denounced by the vice-president be broken, but in turn receives the president Alberto Fernandez in different events in your neighborhood; replicating the position of some of his fellow mayors.

Mariel Fernandezde Moreno, is a member of the Evita movement -space of social and political organizations that support the president and hope to be at the table that the Frente de Todos has convened- but at the same time maintains an agreement with Máximo Kirchnerwho supported her in the FdT in the 2019 elections. Although she questioned the vice president when she said that social organizations outsourced and intervened in the distribution of social plans and this well-known phrase ” if Evita saw them…”, the mayor is at the same time the vice-president of the PJ which Kirchner presides.

The current picture of the mayors can be changed over the months and once the Frente de Todos has decided on the electoral strategy, because as it happens with the support or not of the different presidential options, there are also nuances as to know what is the best plan to face the elections. The objective is the same, no matter who they support: not to lose political control of their territories.

Continue reading: