Former president Cristina Fernández Kirchner announced on Monday that she will adhere to calls for her to take control of the Partido Justicialista, the key party in the opposition Peronist coalition.
In an open letter addressing “Peronist comrades” and “Argentines were who never Peronists, too,” Fernández de Kirchner reflects on the "climate of violence" installed by President Javier Milei and his government and calls on anti-Peronist voters to ask themselves if austerity and chaos has become too much.
"I have been a member of Peronism since I was very young; however, I have never seen, in contemporary and democratic Argentina, our country in general and Peronism in particular, experience a moment like the present," wrote Fernandez de Kirchner.
Slamming the government’s strict austerity and spending cutbacks, she accused Milei of advancing "with axes on pensioners, universities and even mental health hospitals," and went on to criticise the President for his “increasingly aggressive, violent and coarse” manner.
She argued his rhetoric had helped to “generate a climate of generalised violence that crosses all layers of the community.”
The news comes after a week of reports citing the former president’s imminent political return, a movement dubbed “Operation Clamour” by local media outlets.
Responding to rumours, Fernández de Kirchner said in her open letter that she is “ready to accept the challenge of debating in unity” – a reference to the divisions in the opposition coalition over Argentina’s future.
Calling on Peronists and their voters to unite, she said the Partido Justicialista needed to construct “the best possible Peronism in an Argentina that has become impossible for most of its inhabitants.”
Reflecting on Milei’s rise to power – and Peronism’s ejection from power in last year’s election, Fernández de Kirchner asked: “How did we reach this unprecedented moment? Is it only because of the failure of the last two democratic governments? Or is it that part of our society is willing to put up with anything before a Peronist governs?”
Is it a coincidence that the only two presidents with a strong anti-Peronist or anti-Kirchnerite stamp, as you like, have only been able to reach the Casa Rosada through the ballot, as in the cases of [former president Mauricio] Macri and Milei?’ he added.
Thanking those who have called for her return to frontline politics, Fernández de Kirchner said she is “willing, once again, to accept the challenge of debating in unity.”
“Unity needs direction and a project to build the best possible Peronism in an Argentina that has become impossible for the majority of its inhabitants,” she continued.
“Achieving this is not an objective in itself, but to conceive of our party as the instrument that must take the first step to regroup all political and social forces behind a government programme that restores hope and pride in being Argentines to this Argentina mired in the cruelty and hatred of fools,” she added.
The leadership of the Partido Justicialista has been vacant since former president Alberto Fernández resigned on August 14. The veteran Peronist leader stepped down amid scandal after his former partner, ex-first lady Fabiola Yáñez, accused him of gender violence and battery.
To date, only one other figure has confirmed an intention to run against Fernández de Kirchner for the PJ presidency. That person is La Rioja Province Governor Ricardo Quintela, who is close to his peer in Buenos Aires Province, Axel Kicillof.
– TIMES/NA/PERFIL
Comments