La Matanza, the most powerful bastion of Peronism throughout the Buenos Aires suburbs, lives a situation unpublished and that, a priori, it would show a supposed and unknown situation of weakness of the current mayor Fernando Espinoza: two women from pure peronist DNA, like himself, they will confront him in the PASO to seek to take away control of the municipality. Something unusual in Matanzas Peronism.
The background has Buenos Aires Peronism in suspense. It is that behind the challenge to the hitherto unbeatable Espinoza appears the muscular Evita Movement. It is that one of the rival candidates is Patricia Covered, leader of that social organization and, in addition, wife and mother of the youngest son of his boss, Emilio Pérsico. The other challenger is Maria Laura Ramirezan official of the minister Victoria Toulouse Peace.
La Matanza, because it is the district with greater electoral weight of the Province, is coveted by all. But in the last 40 years it has proved to be a territory impregnable for the opposition. In these decades, Peronism often prevailed with figures and differences that can make even Gildo Insfrán envy.
The mayoral election in which he won with the least advantage was in 1999, when with the clean and jerk of the Alliance the late Pinky gave him a scare flower to the P.J. That time, Peronism got 41.12% of the votes. That was his historic floor.
Its ceiling was in 2019, when with Espinoza at the head of the local section of the ballot, he stayed with 64.18% of the votes. In the remaining 8 mayoral elections that took place from 1983 until now, Peronism never won less than 46.6%.
In all these years, a mayor has never had to face an inmate. For this reason, for some in Peronism, even in Evita, this new situation would indicate that Espinoza is beaten.
“If not, Máximo (Kirchner) would not have enabled him to face him in the primaries,” interpret opponents of the current mayor.
Add other ingredients. That in the ballot of national deputies for the Province of Unión por la Patria there are no candidates in a position to be elected who belong to the Peronism scheme of La Matanza.
The usual thing in these years was that they had a candidate who was safely elected and another in a position with a high chance of entering.
And something else: also for the first time, the PJ of La Matanza it did not place any candidate for provincial senator.
For the 3rd Electoral Section -it is the one to which the municipality belongs- it is expected that UxP will elect four senators this year.
maximum kirchnerpresident of the Buenos Aires PJ, nominated four stalwarts from his sector: the first two candidates are from La Cámpora, the third is from Lomas de Zamora but is in a column with the organization led by Cristina’s son, and the fourth belongs to Kolina, the match of Alice Kirchner.
the aftershocks
But in the Peronism of La Matanza, one by one they disarm the accusations of their political adversaries.
First, they suggest that it’s not out of weakness of Espinoza that there is internal if not because it was the only way that was found that Evita did not break, which would have left Peronism hurt in the election.
“They had an armed party, the Commons Party, and they threatened to go outside until the last moment. What was assumed is that if they went outside they would subtract 3 or 4 points from Axel Kicillof and put his re-election at risk “, they raise in the ruling party from Matanzas.
And they immediately warn: “If they broke up, it wouldn’t hurt us in the municipal election. Fernando won anyway“.
To try to take away the drama, they also state that La Matanza is not the only district in which Evita will face the current Peronist mayors in the PASO with their own candidates (it will also do so in 5 other municipalities).
They also point out that although it is true that they could not cast candidates to national legislators, this was due to the fact that in order to achieve a unity list for the presidential election, the ballot had to be opened for the two candidates imposed by Alberto Fernández, santiago cafiero and Toulouse Peace.
“There were two fewer places to make room for the candidates of Alberto (Fernández), Evita’s friend”, chicanean in the PJ aligned with Espinoza.
The powerful Peronism of La Matanza attributes itself as a merit to having achieved that the former mayor Veronica Magario go for re-election as lieutenant governor with Axel Kicillof. If re-elected, she will continue as president of the Province’s Chamber of Senators.
in the Evita they take away value. “They already had the deputy governorship,” they disqualify.
In the ruling party from Matanzas, on the other hand, they emphasize that many sectors of the ruling party wanted Magario’s place -they mention everything from massismo, to La Cámpora and the Lomense sector Martin Insaurralde– but they didn’t make it.
long term plan
In Evita they maintain that they see Espinoza weakened due to his own municipal management since he plays alone in the Buenos Aires PJ. “His management of him is bad and he is very close to Kicillof. Among the mayors he is very alone,” they question him.
Near Cubría they maintain that there is a political process of change in La Matanza and that the end of the cycle is approaching for the ruling party from Matanzas.
They admit, yes, that they are behind Espinoza in voting intentions, although they assure that they are growing and that they can “make a great election.”
They also maintain that Evita’s plan is long-term. That the idea of the organization led by Pérsico is to position candidates in different districts for the 2023, 2027 and 2031 elections. Cubría’s campaign manager is Fernando “Chino” Navarrothe two of Evita.
But some, especially in the ruling party apparatus of La Matanza, understand that Evita will not win this internship and much less any that could happen in the future.
In the middle of a heated fight, in Espinoza’s scheme they blurt out: “They will never again have the economic power they have now. If they don’t win this one, they never win again.”.
And they blame the Macrista administration for having outsourced social policy. Among all the applicants with chances of reaching the Casa Rosada, there seems to be a consensus in reversing this policy.
Cubría complies with the role of defiant and hits Espinoza and Magario – he also makes fun of them – in a spot.
“They already look like a Carrió campaign”They are ignored in the ruling party of La Matanza.
“We are going to win, but it is the most difficult election of my life”they heard Espinoza say in his campaign command.
But apparently he was not referring to his performance in his pay but to the fact that he has to add votes to help Kicillof’s re-election and the arrival of Sergio Massa to the Casa Rosada.
The other candidate for the mayor’s office, former deputy María Laura Ramirez, appears with fewer chances in the dispute. And it is presented with a short list (it only has candidates for councilors and school counselors) unlike Espinoza and Cubría, who go with a long ballot.
With its 1,837,774 inhabitants (according to the last census), La Matanza has more voters than 17 Argentine provinces.
