Massa's successor in Tigre decries local gov't coup

Sergio Massa's return to the Kirchnerite movement he once fiercely opposed has fuelled tension over control of the Municipality of Tigre, in Buenos Aires province, where Massa was once ruled as mayor.

Massa announced this week that he and his Renewal Front movement would join the Frente de Todos alliance of Peronist parties, which is campaigning for former Cabinet chief Alberto Fernández for president and former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner for vice-president.

Current Mayor of Tigre, Julio Zamora wants control of the local government to be decided in a primaries contest. However, Zamora learned Thursday that the local PJ Justicialist Party in Tigre had ceded control of local candidacies to Massa's in negotiations with the Renewal Front.

Mayor Zamora, who is also the JP president in Tigre, told this journalist he is unwilling to hand over control of candidacies.

"I learnt that my party had ceded control through Massa of the designation of candidacies to a power of attorney, and will not grant me fair conditions to negotiate my participation in the electoral processes of this alliance (Frente de Todos). The authorities of the PJ must revert this decision which is totally unjust", Zamora said in a telephone interview.

Zamora had intended to run in a primaries race against Malena Galamarini. However, the recent news has left him with few possibilities.  

"The fact that I am the mayor of Tigre, the president of the Party (locally) and that I am part of this alliance, makes all of this a scandal", he said.

"There are negotiators in the PJ which decided this with men from the Renewal Front. It is a total scandal. They are treating Tigre like a booty of war and I will not allow it", he charged.

Zamora insisted he just wants to participate in a primaries race. "I must be a candidate and I must defend my territorial leadership. They are not going to tell me that I should be a lawmaker or legislator because we're not debating that", he said.

This article originally appeared in a complete version in Spanish on Perfil.com