The peace gestures between Alberto Fernández and Cristina Kirchner | A truce on the pro-government battlefield

2023-05-20 14:50:59

Alberto Fernández had not yet assumed the presidency of the Nation and the partnership with Cristina Kirchner was already beginning to show its first cracks. They appeared days after having won the 2019 PASO due to differences in the conduct of the campaign, they worsened with the electoral defeat of 2021 and imploded after the agreement with the IMF in 2022. Three and a half years after a relationship that ended up broken, In the last few hours, the president and the vice president launched two gestures that can be interpreted as a turn of the page and a look focused on the future. The first, that of CFK, when emphasizing that the current government “is infinitely better” than a re-election of Mauricio Macri would have been. The second, that of Fernández, when summoning the Plaza de Mayo to “listen to the life partner” of Néstor Kirchner in the tribute to the former president next Thursday. They are two movements that do not imply a reconciliation, but a change of flank in the face of a thorny electoral scenario and a pressing calendar.

“Néstor unites us”, launched Alberto Fernández to justify the call to the act where Cristina Kirchner will be the only speaker. “On 05/25/2003 history changed. The arrival of Néstor Kirchner began a path of moral reappearance, social justice and human rights, ”he added about the day that will commemorate the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the government that had him as chief of staff. The presidential message, they say in Casa Rosada, was a sign of rapprochement after the words of the vice president the day before. They consider that having recognized the work that was done during the pandemic and highlighting that, despite the differences, this administration – our government, CFK said – was better than a second term for Macri, is the highest praise that the creator of the Front of All. They also admit that the fact that both have confirmed that they will not be candidates decompresses the tension.

Days ago, Fernández’s environment assured that it was not planned to join the act. Now they anticipate that the majority of space ministers and officials will participate in the event. Also the social movements referenced in Albertism as Evita, whose top leaders –Emilio Pérsico and Fernando “Chino” Navarro– are deeply at odds with Kirchnerism. The CGT, for its part, has already confirmed through Andrés Rodríguez (UPCN) that it will not be present organically, the CTA headed by Hugo Yasky and the Federal Current led by Sergio Palazzo will. Under this configuration, the act will become a show of force in the face of the next elections and will have the undisputed centrality of CFK. “It is the first step to be competitive”, they maintain in the Government and they are excited that it is the beginning of a new stage in the Front.

The original sin

In August 2019, the management had not yet started the internal conflicts. During the interview in C5N, Cristina Kirchner confessed that in those days she went through the first disagreements with who was her running mate. She pointed out two facts that go hand in hand. In the first place, she pointed out that after the victory in the PASO, by a difference of 15 points over Macri, she “changed the campaign leadership” of the Frente de Todos. “There we lost points and deputies,” she explained. The vice president alluded to the decisions that were debated every week by the coalition’s small table at the Instituto Patria and that after the victory in the Primaries began to be made at the offices of Grupo Callao. “They began to carve out other voices,” she said.

In this context, CFK maintained that the advantage they had achieved over Juntos por el Cambio at the polls was reduced. And it related the setback to the moment in which Alberto Fernández affirmed that “the dollar at 63 pesos was a reasonable value.” It was a statement made by the then candidate after talking by phone with Macri, in the midst of days of high exchange rate volatility. His objective was to help calm the markets, endorsing a devaluation of the peso of around 20 percent. “That was a mistake and I told him so,” the former president clarified and closed the issue about the first major clash between the Front Ton leadership.

“Anyway. I don’t want to delve further into the past because it’s not worth it,” he concluded, stressing that if Macri were re-elected “everything would have been much worse.” The end of the story was read by those around the president as the possible beginning of the end of the internal dispute, or at least an impasse until the next conflict breaks out.