Looking ahead to the primary elections (HE PASSED) of August the different sectors of Peronism begin to make calculations about the presidential candidacy and there are those who are already encouraged to suggest that the Buenos Aires governor, Axel Kicillofand the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massacan be keys to improve the competitiveness of the Front of All.
The idea is not new, but it was just part of the many speculations that always run before an election. However, the Buenos Aires senator Francisco “Paco” Durañona became the first to go out to publicly state that Kicillof and Massa should compete in the STEP.
“In order to reach the election competitively, it is essential to organize a great STEP in all the categories of the Frente de Todos. Sergio Massa and Axel Kicillof would undoubtedly put the necessary ingredients for the great national discussion on the start of a new cycle”expressed the senator through Twitter.
Durañona is also a former mayor of San Antonio de Areco and a benchmark of the Buenos Aires PJ in the interior of the province. Their order is in line with plan that for some time has let transcend The Campora: that Kicillof not seek re-election in the province of Buenos Aires and run for the Presidency.
In fact, Durañona’s tweet was accompanied by a newspaper article that made reference to the idea that he promotes maximum kirchnerleader of the group, together with a group of mayors from the Buenos Aires suburbs headed by the chief of staff of the provincial government Martin Insaurralde. But Kicillof resists this possibility.
Massa and Kicillof at PASO?: the mystery of the minister and the key to the next inflation data
In massismo, meanwhile, they do not move an inch from the line that their leader marked as soon as he landed at the Ministry of Economy: nothing to talk about applicationsonly of the management to attend to the most urgent problems that the Government faces, with inflation and dollar shortage at the top of concerns.
Kicillof resists pressure to compete in the national election and will seek a new mandate in the Province
However, Buenos Aires mayors, governors and even the CGT expect Massa to accept being a candidate. They know that the minister himself denies that possibility, both in public and in private, arguing that he promised his family to take a break from politics and wait until 2027.
The key, repeated ad nauseam by different sources of Peronism, is that Massa achieves its goal of reaching April with a monthly inflation of 3%. That would give him the platform for all Peronism to exalt his management – which began in the midst of the fire that left the resignation of Martín Guzmán – and launch the campaign.
The data of Inflation of 4.9% in November, significantly lower than the 6.3% in October, fed the still timid “operational clamor” for a presidential candidacy for the minister. Now the expectation is on the December price index that will be released on January 12.
In any case, among the Peronists who want him as a candidate, they click: “If you spend 4 years on the plain, where will you go in 2027?”. The definition will be between March and April, although it could stretch to May, according to official sources consulted by iProfessional. The term to formalize the candidacies expires on June 24.
The pressure that begins to grow on Kicillof
The uncertainty generated by the vice president Cristina Kirchner by announcing that she will not be a “candidate for anything” and later stating that it is not a “resignation” but a “proscription” by the Justice, she put the entire Frente de Todos -including the president Alberto Fernandez– to recalculate. “Equally, the last word will be hers”an official source with a good relationship with Kirchnerism slipped to iProfessional.
This can constitute a problem in the medium term for Kicillofwhose arrival at the Buenos Aires government was a decision of the vice presidentlike the landing of Insaurralde in his Cabinet after the electoral defeat of 2021. That order was felt in the environment of the president as an intervention and it took him time to digest it.
The idea of a STEP with several candidates in the Frente de Todos is also defended by Alberto Fernández
In Kirchnerism they understand that the Buenos Aires governor It is the figure that best contains the voters most loyal to Cristina Kirchner and a sector is betting that she, just as she placed him in the Province, will ask him at some point to leave that place and run as a presidential candidate. But Kicillof wants to go for re-election as governor and has already given several signs in this regard.
On December 29, during an act in the Plaza Malvinas in the city of La Plata, the Governor expressed: “We are going to ask this province to accompany us to continue transforming it”. In his environment they assure that he is working with that objective and that they do not value the news about a possible presidential candidacy.
An internal rival for the governor?
However, Kicillof’s knowledge of the idea supported by at least one part of Kirchnerism gives another color to a detail that was observed in his last appearance with Cristina Kirchner: he was personally in charge of relaunching the “operative outcry” for the vice president to go for another term.
“To you, Cristina, we need you to continue advancing with the rights in the future”was the phrase with which the Buenos Aires governor closed his speech at the act led by the vice president last week in the Avellaneda district of Buenos Aires.
La Cámpora’s plan for Kicillof has another uncomfortable edge for the governor. A few weeks ago it began to emerge that Insaurralde, an ally of Máximo Kirchner and a man in frequent dialogue with the vice president, wants to be a candidate in the Province.
In the most populous district in the country and therefore strategic for the national elections, the definitions will also begin to be taken between March and April.
