Kicillof, maximum Kirchner and Insaurralde, at the summit of the PJ mayors of the Conurbano / Twitter
What was intended to be a show of unity from the Frente de Todos in the Province after the crosses last weekend in the ruling party, ended up not being such. Several absences of mayors prevented the Buenos Aires summit of the PJ from displaying itself as monolithic and exposed, for different reasons, that the party leadership in the hands of Máximo Kirchner does not finish enlisting all the heavyweights of the suburbs at least at this juncture.
There are dissimilar reasons that help explain the absences. Several of them have to do with old and new quarrels between La Cámpora and some district chiefs. But the exclusion of the presidential figure in a conclave in which the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, and the head of the Interior, Wado De Pedro, one of the visible faces of the latest fray in the ruling party, also weighed heavily.
It would be necessary to begin with the absence of Fernando Espinoza, the mayor of the populous La Matanza. As the summit that was convened in Merlo was designed to bring together the Peronist mayors of Greater Buenos Aires, the foul sounded very loud.
At least two issues would have weighed so that Espinoza, who is taking a few days off on the coast, decided to stay in front of the sea. One of them would be related to the inmate of his district. In La Matanza, the Evita Movement wants to dethrone the mayor and has already planted a candidate for him: Patricia Cubría, Emilio Pérsico’s partner.
WARRANTY
In Peronism it is said that Máximo Kirchner is the guarantor that Cubría will be able to compete in the Primaries against Espinoza, an agreement that would have been sealed before the end of the year and that was verified in the attendance of several Evita leaders at the act led by Cristina Kirchner at the Estadio Unico de La Plata.
There is another issue that might have influenced his absence: the well-oiled relationship that Máximo maintains with Martín Insaurralde, Axel Kicillof’s chief of staff and a strong man from Lomas de Zamora. Espinosa and the local have had differences for a long time and that have to do with the territorial dispute over the Third electoral section.
The dispute with La Cámpora and consequently with the son of the vice president, would have pushed another mayor not to taste the barbecue that was served in La Colonial de Merlo. This is Juan Zabaleta, the mayor of Hurlingham.
The former Minister of Social Development of the Nation returned to his district in search of retaining the territory in the midst of a tough internal struggle with the camporismo, which had stayed with that municipality of the First electoral section while Zabaleta was in the cabinet of Alberto Fernández . Zabaleta’s return was traumatic: the interim Damián Selci had to leave office and after a few weeks “Juanchi” fired several campers whom he accused of having been assigned high salaries.
The official version is that Zabaleta did not go to the barbecue because when he received the invitation he already had commitments. In the groups of Peronism, it is believed that not only that intern with La Cámpora weighed, but also the fact that they had avoided summoning the President.
The decision to remove Alberto Fernández from the Buenos Aires definition table of the Frente de Todos was perhaps a determining reason for Mario Ishii, the mayor of José C. Paz, not to go to Merlo. Ishii is a declared Albertist and every time he can, he organizes events that turn into political descents from the President to the Province.
MORE MISSES
Other historic Peronists from the Conurbano did not attend the call either. One of them was Alberto Descalzo, from Ituzaingó. The mayor, re-elected several times, maintains a tense relationship with La Cámpora, which would try to plant a candidate for him in Las Paso.
Nor was Andrés Watson, the mayor of Florencio Varela, the homeland of national deputy Julio Pereyra, at the barbecue. Pereyra precisely denies getting rid of albertismo and even tends to be close to the chief of staff, Juan Manzur.
The historic from Berazategui, Juan José Mussi, was another of those who was conspicuous by his absence. He was one of the first mayors of the Conurbano to come out to support the re-election of Axel Kicillof, for which reason the failure would be related to other reasons.
To this list we must add Fernando Gray, from Esteban Echeverría, who has been in conflict for a long time with Máximo Kirchner over the leadership of the PJ in the Province.
In the meeting, despite everything, there was talk of unity and somehow the Buenos Aires political table of the Frente de Todos was launched, which from the Province is also pushed at the national level. Even with the absence of some heavyweights from the suburbs and the presence of Máximo Kirchner, Axel Kicillof and Sergio Massa.
