Cristina Fernández de Kirchner once again stirred internal Peronist debate on Friday, criticising Buenos Aires Province Governor Axel Kicillof and partially blaming him for the opposition Fuerza Patria coalition’s defeat in the midterm elections on Sunday October 26.
Fernández de Kirchner, the former two-term president who is jailed under house arrest on corruption charges, posted a lengthy open letter on social media on Friday, her first reaction to last weekend’s election defeat for the opposition Peronist movement.
In it, she criticised President Javier Milei and his government, but it was the rebuke of Kicillof that drew the most attention. Fernández de Kirchner slammed the governor for his decision earlier this year to split the regional elections in Buenos Aires Province, a traditional Peronist stronghold, from last Sunday’s national midterm legislative vote.
“The [voting] difference by nearly 14 points in the election on September 7 in the Province was a kind of PASO primary or run-off which helped regroup the anti-Peronist vote for the election on October 26. Nothing new,” lamented the ex-president, who had pushed for both votes to be held on the same day.
"The exception of what happened in Buenos Aires Province is due to a political error in misjudging the electoral strategy, deciding on the split. I am not saying this with the benefit of hindsight, as 'experts and analysts' tend to do," she said.
She said she had noted back in April that the strategy would hurt the opposition and reiterated her concerns in private.
“I argued that bringing forward the [Buenos Aires Province] elections was very risky, both because of their electoral weight and symbolic value, and because if they were lost, it would have a devastating effect on Peronism at the national level, and if they were won, it would produce a 'run-off effect' that would allow all the anti-Peronist votes to be regrouped for the October legislative elections," said the veteran leader.
Fernández de Kirchner’s post was made just hours after she met liberal influencer and trader Carlos Maslatón, a former friend and ally of Milei who cut ties with the President prior to the 2023 general election.
Maslatón, who was once a fierce critic of the ex-president’s government, heaped praise on Fernández de Kirchner in his own post on social media. In turn, the veteran Peronist leader noted the importance of “talking, sharing and even agreeing on many things our country needs to build together.”
She described her and Maslatón as “two people who come from different life stories and [strands of] political activism, even antagonistic ones at times.”
Fernández de Kirchner, who also served as Argentina’s vice-president from 2019 to 2023, is currently jailed under house arrest.
She was sentenced to six years in prison and a lifetime ban on holding public office for fraudulent administration in the awarding of public works contracts during her 2007-2015 Presidency.
Fernández de Kirchner’s letter was extremely critical of the Judiciary, accusing Argentina’s authorities of seeking to “to try to break Peronism and the national and popular field as a whole.”
She again repeated her claims that she is a victim of political and judicial persecution, saying “they ordered my sentence and barred me from public office for life,” she commented, noting that another former president, Mauricio Macri, had been cleared of espionage charges by the Supreme Court this week.
Responding to her criticism, more than 40 Peronist mayors from Buenos Aires Province closed ranks Friday and backed Kicillof after a three-hour meeting.
La Plata Mayor Julio Alak said the results for Peronism in September were "very positive" because "the September election results allowed us to win in 107 out of 135 municipalities."
We "won 34 provincial legislative seats, including senators and deputies, out of a total of 69," said Alak in statements to the press after the meeting.
Alak said Fernández de Kirchner's letter "was not a cause for analysis" and stated that in the October elections "there was a tie with La Libertad Avanza (LLA)," noting that the ruling party had won by a thin margin.
"The overall balance was very positive, despite the difficulties we have always had in legislative elections," he said.
– TIMES/PERFIL/NA
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