SUBSCRIBERS EXCLUSIVE
Kirchnerism and massismo maintain that if Daniel Scioli does not lower his candidacy, they will present a new coalition with a new name in the elections: Renovation Unit.
The closeness of the closure of electoral alliances and of the candidate lists that they will be able to compete in the PASO of August accelerated the internal fight in the Frente de Todos. In the last hours, the President of the Nation received multiple pressures from his partners to withdraw from the competition the candidacies of the officials who respond to him. Although it is transmitted as a call for the unification of lists so that the ruling party can gain competitiveness, the request can be summed up in another sentence: Daniel Scioli does not have to compete.
On Wednesday, it was governors of peronism those who called for a single presidential candidate. They were summoned at the request of Cristina Kirchner, who sent for them so that her desire for unification would reach the President in all possible ways.
The conversation with Massa
But they were not only messages transmitted by means of cannonballs to the President. Sergio Massa told him in person at a meeting which lasted more than two hours and which will continue this Thursday. At Wednesday’s meeting, the Economy Minister and the President spent some time talking about management -they agreed that on Monday changes to the automotive import regime will be announced– but the conversation then turned to political differences.
Massa did not ask for a unit list. He was more sincere: he claimed a single list, a way of making it clear that it will not emerge from negotiations or consensus with the President. Fernández remained in what he said weeks ago: that Peronism is not in a position to unify anything and that the best way to convene the disenchanted is to give participation options. A fact that they usually repeat in their team is that 67 percent of people who decided not to vote In the 2021 legislative election in the Province of Buenos Aires they had voted for the Frente de Todos in 2019. “Ours did not vote against us, they did not go to vote directly,” they read in Albertism.
In addition to that, Fernández once again told Massa that he is not the one who is supporting Scioli’s candidacy, despite the fact that two of his trusted people, Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero and Minister Victoria Tolosa Paz, are working on the assembly of the candidacy of the ambassador in Brazil. “I’m not behind Daniel,” repeats Fernández.
On Monday, in a telephone conversation, Massa and Cristina finished agreeing on a common position about the lists. The two agreed that the ruling party has to avoid competition in the PASO. It is not a novelty for the parameters of the vice president: since she herself established the mandatory primaries in 2009, Kirchnerism never allowed there to be more than one competing list at the national level.
The tandem formed for months by the vice president and the Minister of Economy is not willing to negotiate the point of the unification of lists. Even they already have the mechanism ready for, in case the President does not accept the request that Scioli get out of the competition, rearm a coalition that excludes Fernández and to the leaders who still respond to him. The new front they plan to create will be called the Renovation Unitand that name – an unimaginative but explicit mixture of the Christian brand Unidad Ciudadana, created by the vice president in 2017, and the Frente Renovador de Massa – will reveal the discarding of the inclusive vocation that the Frente de Todos label had.
This Saturday, Massa will lead in the Direct TV Arena of Malvinas Argentinas the congress of the Renovation Front. The minister will finish writing his speech on Friday, but Kirchnerism awaits harsh words to press for the single list, which will be read as a warning for Scioli to give up.
