Absent CFK looms large on fragemented Peronist Loyalty Day

Peronist leaders almost seemed one step closer to “unity” on Wednesday, during the October 17-Peronist “Loyalty Day” celebrations in Argentina’s north. In terms of unity ahead of the 2019 elections, however, former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner seems to be the limit for most of the Peronist movement’s major leaders.

In Tucumán, those opposed to her participation in a possible alliance for the 2019 general and presidential elections rallied before a crowd. Organisers estimated around 60,000 people were present.

“I ask all comrades, without exception: Peronism in 2019 must be united,” Tucumán governor Juan Manzur urged those gathered at the event.

Kirchner-alligned Peronists, meanwhile, were meeting in Corrientes and the movement’s traditional bastion, Buenos Aires province.

Traditionally a motly crew of personalities, ideologies and leadership styles, Peronists have once again shown their ability to reconstruct broken alliances.

Among those on stage were former Buenos Aires province governor Daniel Scioli and dissident Peronist Sergio Massa, who came in second and third in the 2015 presidential elections on competing tickets, respectively. National lawmaker Scioli formally sits with Fernández de Kirchner’s voting bloc in the Lower House. Among the others in attendance included Miguel Angel Pichetto and lieutenant-governor of Chaco province, Daniel Capitanich.

CHANGE IN TONE

Wednesday’s event marked a change in tone for some of the Peronist movement’s key leaders. Speakers at the event included Manzur; lawmaker for the centrist Renewal Front in Con- gress, Graciela Camaño; and CGT leader Héctor Daer.

“To hell with the niceties, they [the Macri administration] are ruining us by mortgaging the country,” Camaño declared. “Never again a neoliberal [government].”

“The priority is unity. Let’s make sure that our differences don’t mean they beat us again by one percent”, Daer said, in reference to the 2015 run-off presidential vote, in which Scioli lost to President Macri by one percent.

In Corrientes province, the day’s event was dominated by Peronist leaders with strong ties to Fernández de Kirchner whose message of unity “without leaving anybody aside,” according to national Justicialist Party (PJ) chairman José Luis Gioja, has so far failedtoenticetherestofthemovement.

Gioja was joined by Kirchnerite lawmaker, the head of FpV’s Lower House caucus Agustín Rossi, who is a 2019 presidential hopeful.

“No-one has the ability to say: ‘With this person yes, with this person no.’ This is because Macri’s austerity agenda is for all Argentines, no matter who they voted for in 2015”, Rossi said.

Fernández de Kirchner supporters were also on show in Merlo, in the east of Greater Buenos Aires, Peronist heartland, where the party’s provincial leader Gustavo Menéndez was joined by national lawmakers Fernando Espinoza, Máximo Kirchner, Mayra Mendoza, Andrés Larroque, Wado de Pedro and Axel Kicillof.

“For those asking who was coming and who wasn’t: everybody’s here,” Menéndez told the crowd, ironically.

“We will show the entire country that Peronism in Buenos Aires province is as united as ever,” lawmaker Espinoza said.