Monteverde leads Peronism to first triumph in Rosario in half-decade

Peronist leader Juan Monteverde, heading the Más para Santa Fe list finished first with 30.57 percent of the vote in last Sunday’s local elections in Rosario to renew 13 of the 28 Municipal Council seats.

With 99.2 percent of the votes counted, Monteverde remained ahead of the La Libertad Avanza candidate, journalist Juan Pedro Aleart, who was running second with 28.79 percent. The ruling Unidos para Cambiar Santa Fe list, responding to UCR Governor Maximiliano Pullaro and headed by Carolina Labayrú, was in third place with 25.64 percent.

Monteverde, 40, celebrated the victory and the Peronist resurgence winning in this city for the first time in 52 years.

"Today the people of Rosario defeated the President, the Governor and the Mayor. They voted without fear against the machines and won because there is a social majority which is having a rough time and does not agree with what is going on but was lacking a force to represent them. 

“Well, that force has appeared in Rosario, confronting the violence and the lies with unity and cooperation. A humble message from this small corner of the homeland to all Argentina," he wrote on the X social network.

"We won against everybody and everything. In two years Rosario has changed forever. I love you a lot. Thanks!" he added.

Ex-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who is serving house arrest after her conviction in the Vialidad case was upheld, messaged Monteverde to convey her congratulations.

She wrote in her X account: "I have also communicated with comrade Juan Monteverde who scored a great victory in Rosario. My congratulations to the Santa Fe Peronist comrades for the excellent election also in other inland cities."

Pullaro’s Unidos para Cambiar Santa Fe list headed by María del Carmen Luengo won in the provincial capital of Santa Fe with 32.7 percent of the vote, followed by the Peronist Pedro Medei of Más para Santa Fe (24.95 percent) with the La Libertad Avanza list headed by Ana Andrea Cantiani in third place with 23.36 percent. 

Turnout in the provincial capital barely topped 46 percent.

Across the province Unidos para Cambiar Santa Fe prevailed in 80 percent of the municipalities, consolidating its control over municipal councils and town halls.

But it is worth mentioning that last Sunday’s elections in Santa Fe were marked by a record low turnout of 52 percent of the electorate with even less in the major urban centres.

– TIMES/NA