The clamor for Cristina Kirchner to be a candidate has sown more uncertainty about the fate of Peronism’s electoral strategy

Will Cristina Kirchner accept to be the Frente de Todos candidate? Does all Peronism approve of the operational outcry that had several chapters last week? And if it’s not Cristina, then who? mass? Scioli? Wado? Kicilloff? The questions started spinning like a top in the Peronist offices after the national table last Thursday.

The idea of ​​asking the vice president to be a candidate has sown more uncertainty about the strategy for the elections. Far from serving to mark a clearer course in the internal discussion on the candidacies, the plan to convince the horizon has blurred. Peronism faces an upcoming election that is very complex and has no competitive candidates.

Behind the political movement for CFK to be a candidate, there is an exercise of pressure for Alberto Fernández to give up his re-election project. Kirchnerism has already asked the president, in various ways, to decide whether he was going to be a candidate or not. It’s the public way to put pressure on him to define himself. Behind his back, the K world is waiting for the resignation of the candidacy at the earliest.

Fernández is far from having made a decision. He has the ball in his possession because the same leaders of Kirchner give it to him. It was Máximo Kirchner who last Thursday at the PJ made it clear that it was impossible for the president to be internalized during PASO. It is impossible to explain from the outside and, moreover, a possible defeat of the Head of State would leave a huge power vacuum with six months of mandate in front of him.

The President and his small circle of loyal leaders resist K’s pressure. They begin to find some solace where they are. In the Kirchnerisme, the nerves have already gained ground because it is necessary to start ordering the candidatures in the communes and the provinces. From bottom to top. Moreover, they understand that Fernández has no real chance of winning an election. They are uncomfortable with their presence at the top of the pyramid.

Those who inflate the operational clamor for Cristina Kirchner to be a candidate are telling some of what would turn out to be the objective truth. The vice president is the Peronism leader with the most votes overall, according to most polls. What they do not accept is that the electoral ceiling is very low. CFK would lose in any second-round scenario.

“If Cristina didn’t run in 2019 because she didn’t have the votes to win, why would she now, with 100% inflation on her back and a party government,” said an important consultant, who in his fieldwork He warned of a very complex electoral panorama for the Frente de Todos.

This same logic is applied in Peronism from within. Kirchnerism launched the outcry because there are no strong candidates and, the one everyone sees as the main option, never tires of repeating that he has a position incompatible with a presidential candidacy. Sergio Massa again clarified this position at the national table of the PJ and some leaders began to believe that the Minister of Economy could not play.

Inflation of 6% in January has shaken the entire ruling party. The “Candidat Massa” plan they have in most Frente de Todos camps suffered a major crack and the questions started to multiply. If Cristina is not competitive, Alberto does not measure and Massa is not a candidate due to the conditions of the economy, which is responsible for competing with the official shirt.

In this roadmap, Kirchnerism has two names behind the Minister of Economy. One is Eduardo “Wado” de Pedro, the other is Axel Kicillof. The first received the support of a northern governor on Sunday afternoon, but it is not known to the majority; the second appears in the polls as one of the best candidates for the party in power but wants to avoid, by all means, that the vice-president appoints him to contest the presidential election.

“If Alberto or Cristina do not compete, Wado has all the conditions to be a candidate”held Ricardo Quintela, president of La Rioja, who also pointed out that the camporista leader is the minister with whom the governors of the PJ have the best relations. A consecration at a time when the question of the future of the electoral strategy arises more and more.

While Peronism evokes the course of candidacies, Daniel Scioli prepares to jump into the electoral arena. Those who frequent him assure that he is looking forward to being a presidential candidate and that in a short time he would begin with a series of tours through the interior of the country. They say he is active and eager to get out and play.

Argentina’s ambassador to Brazil could be an unexpected card in the electoral game. Even a possibility for Kirchnerism, where the majority is clear that if CFK deflates the clamor operation, there is no proper name that can align all Peronism and that can fight the center vote. Scioli says in private what he has already shown in public. He never betrayed Kirchnerism, despite the mistreatment he suffered when he was a candidate in 2015.

In Peronism, they expect the president to define himself in the short term. Stretching out its decision implies, according to some leaders, a waste of time that the ruling party could use to outline the candidate for political strength. Fernández does not want to be pressured, but he does not have the necessary support to maintain his uncertainty until the last moment. Those who frequent it argue that this definition will be stretched until April.

If the final decision is delayed, Kirchnerism will advance more and more voraciously on the president. It will be behind the scenes of multiple meetings that will continue to mark the Peronist agenda and that will aim to develop a common strategy. After a year and a half of a furious inmate, the Frente de Todos realized they needed a strong candidate to keep control of Casa Rosada.

If one loses, they all lose. They know this and they have begun to act accordingly, although the differences continue to exist and Kirchnerism seeks to condition the president, as they did in the meeting on Thursday, where they set him the agenda and chased him from center stage with the surprise visit of Máximo Kirchner.

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