Massa confirms alliance with Fernández-Fernández faction

It had become a matter of when not if. Sergio Massa and his Renewal Front party on Tuesday confirmed they will join the PJ Justicialist Party, Citizens United and smaller parties as part of a broad Peronist alliance to challenge the Mauricio Macri administration at the ballot box in October.

Massa met with PJ national leaders including party president José Luis Rioja on Tuesday before announcing his plans to participate in "a grand opposition coalition with the greatest number of parties possible".

On Wednesday, he will meet the alliance's presidential hopeful Alberto Fernández. It remains to be seen how Massa will engage with Fernández's running mate, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, with whom Massa has been estranged since he quit as her Cabinet chief in 2009.

"I wish to thank the leaders of the PJ for taking the initiative to visit us and listen to our proposals for government, which are the commitments we must take on for Argentina from December 10 onwards", Massa said in a brief statement.

He also thanked the Party command's "generosity" in "respecting the individuality" of each member of the coalition.

Massa famously led the Renewal Front to victory in the 2013 mid-term elections against an alliance led by former president Fernández de Kirchner. It was her first electoral loss and the beginning of a downward trend in her approval rating which culminated in her movement's loss at the ballot box in 2015 against then candidate for president Mauricio Macri.

UNITY

Tuesday's meeting took place at the Renewal Front's Puerto Madero office on Libertador Avenue.

Also in attendance were the governors of Tucumán and Chubut, Juan Manzur and Mariano Arcioni, respectively; as well as several national lawmakers, Buenos Aires provincial mayors, and union leaders.

"The leadership of the PJ's Council and I met with Sergio Massa to discuss proposals to get our country moving forward. Argentina is destroyed.  With the broad unity we have achieved, we can now get our fatherland on its feet again for everybody," Gioja said via Twitter.

-TIMES/PERFIL