Now in Cabinet, Tolosa Paz’s star continues to rise

National deputy Victoria Tolosa Paz will join Alberto Fernández’s Cabinet as Social Development minister, replacing Juan Zabaleta. The 49-year-old accepted the invitation to take on the post last weekend after a meeting with the president at the Quinta de Olivos residence on the outskirts of the capital.

A former chair of the National Council for the Coordination of Social Policies, Tolosa Paz has decades of Peronist activism behind her. Her profile has risen considerably in recent years after she lost a 2019 run for the mayoralty of La Plata and, most recently, in the 2021 midterm elections, when she topped the ruling coalition’s list in Buenos Aires Province.

During that campaign she raised eyebrows after calling for more “enjoyment” in life and boasting about Peronist sexual activity being more prolific than their rivals in opposition.

Born into a middle-class family that supported the UCR Radicals, Tolosa Paz married young and had three children, before separating from her partner and graduating as a public accountant from the Catholic University of La Plata.

Her current partner is Enrique ‘Pepe’ Albistur, a businessman with a long political history who is a personal friend of President Fernández and the owner of the flat in Puerto Madero where the Peronist leader lived before moving to the Quinta de Olivos presidential residence upon assuming office.

This is the origin of Tolosa Paz’s close political relationship with the head of state. In recent years, she has become one of the main defenders of the ‘Albertista’ administration in the media. Tolosa Paz has held many positions during a political career dominated by management. Between 1996 and 2001, she worked for the Family and Human Development Council for the Buenos Aires Province government and in 2002, she worked as an advisor in the National Ministry of Social Development.

In the 2002 government of Eduardo Duhalde, she was an advisor to the Social Development Ministry. When Néstor Kirchner took power in 2003, she became the regional head of a World Bank programme that assisted community soup kitchens and food banks. Later she worked for what is now the National Disability Agency and in 2014 she joined the ANSES management team, where she coordinated the implementation of a PROCREAR programme. During Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s second term in office, she gained greater credibility and in 2015, launched a campaign to become mayor of La Plata, a fight ultimately lost.

After assuming the Presidency in 2019, appointed her as chair of the National Council for the Coordination of Social Policies, a decentralised body under the Presidency. She has served as its president since July 2020.

Last year, Tolosa Paz headed the list of candidates for national deputies in Buenos Aires Province, a nomination that paid tribute to her relations with Alberto Fernández, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Governor Axel Kicillof. In the legislative elections held November 14, she was elected as national deputy, although she lost the race by 1.18 percentage points to PRO’S Diego Santilli at the provincial level.