Federal Peronism

Summary

Federal Peronism (Spanish: Peronismo Federal), also known as Dissident Peronism (Spanish: Peronismo Disidente), is the faction or branch of either moderate, centrist or right-wing Peronism (a political movement in Argentina), that is currently identified mostly by its opposition to Kirchnerism, the left-wing faction of Peronism.[12]

Federal Peronism
Peronismo Federal
LeaderMiguel Ángel Pichetto
FounderCarlos Menem
Founded2005; 19 years ago (2005)
HeadquartersBuenos Aires
Youth wingYoung Republican Peronists[1]
IdeologyPeronism[2]
Anti-Kirchnerism[3]
Conservatism[4]
Right-wing populism[5]
Factions:
Menemism[6]
Orthodox Peronism[7]
Duhaldism[8]
Political positionCentre-right[9][a] to right-wing[10][11]
National affiliationHacemos por Nuestro País
List
Union for the Homeland
Juntos por el Cambio
List
La Libertad Avanza
Independent[b]
Colours  Azure
Seats in the Chamber of Deputies
1 / 257
Seats in the Senate
4 / 72
Website
www.pefed.com.ar[dead link]

  1. ^ with centrist and to far-right factions
  2. ^ including parties which were part of different alliances in the 2023 primary elections
Carlos Menem served as President of Argentina from 1989 to 1999.
The endorsement of President Eduardo Duhalde was decisive in Néstor Kirchner's rise to power in 2003, and their later rivalry led Duhalde to form Federal Peronism.
President Kirchner confers with Buenos Aires Province Governor Felipe Solá. Solá's break with Kirchner during the 2008 export tax dispute was perhaps the most significant boost to Federal Peronism.
The 2007 Federal Peronist convention, in San Luis Province. Though dissident Peronism is active in most Argentine provinces, San Luis remains its stronghold.

The term "Federal Peronism," as opposed to "metropolitan Peronism" (mainly from Greater Buenos Aires), was informally used since the 1980s to identify the more traditional and conservative Peronists from the Provinces of Argentina, whose governors grew in number and influence during the administration of President Carlos Menem.

"Dissident Peronism" is more properly used to refer to the Peronist opposition to the administrations and party leadership of left-leaning Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. The term gained currency since the 2008 Argentine government conflict with the agricultural sector, when a number of party leaders, governors and legislators (mainly from the agroexporter provinces) withdrew their support of the national government.

Overview edit

Following the crisis that precipitated the resignation of President Fernando de la Rúa on December 21, 2001, the opposition Justicialist Party won a majority in both houses of the Argentine Congress in the October 2001 mid-term elections. The first interim President of Argentina elected by Congress after de la Rúa's resignation, San Luis Province Senator Adolfo Rodríguez Saá, had the support of a group of governors and legislators from the hinterland provinces, from where the informal designation of Federal Peronism originated. He resigned a week later, however, after failing to gain support from other factions of Peronism, from organized labor, and other sectors of Argentine society. The former Governor of Buenos Aires Province and runner-up in the 1999 general election, Eduardo Duhalde was elected by the Congress as interim President of Argentina on January 2, 2002.

Eduardo Duhalde, who counted on the support of Buenos Aires Province Peronism and some labor union leaders, called elections for April 2003, and persuaded the fractious Justicialist Party to present candidates directly to the general elections, without party primaries.[13] After attempting to endorse other candidates (Carlos Reutemann, who refused to run, and José Manuel de la Sota, who did badly at the polls), Duhalde threw his support behind the little-known Governor of Santa Cruz Province, Néstor Kirchner. Federal Peronists, in turn, were represented in the elections by two factions, one headed by former President Carlos Menem and Governor of Salta Province José Luis Romero, identified with the policies spoused by Menem's 1989-99 presidency, and the other by Adolfo Rodríguez Saá and his brother, Alberto Rodríguez Saá,[14] in an alliance with Radical Civic Union lawmaker Melchor Posse. Menem and Kirchner emerged as the runoff candidates, but the former President withdrew on May 14 as he anticipated a landslide defeat (the polls favored Kirchner 70%–30%), and Kirchner became the president-elect.[15]

2005 edit

The alliance between President Kirchner and Duhalde had been dissolved by the 2005 mid-term elections. Kirchner and Duhalde fielded their respective wives (each an influential lawmaker in her own right), Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Hilda González de Duhalde, as leaders of their party lists in Buenos Aires Province (the nation's largest constituency). The landslide victory of the Kirchners' FpV consolidated their leadership role in the Justicialist Party,[16] and this in turn forced Duhalde to break with the official Peronist body, the Justicialist Party, in which Kirchnerism had become the dominant force. He thus established Federal Peronism on November 4, 2005, and gathered a caucus of 25 Congressmen in its support.[17]

2007 edit

They later backed Alberto Rodríguez Saá's conservative Peronist candidacy in the 2007 presidential elections, where Mrs. Kirchner was elected to succeed her husband with 45% of the vote (twice that of the runner-up, and six times that of Rodríguez Saá).[18]

Dissident Peronism was united by its opposition to Kirchner's Front for Victory (FpV), which became the leading vehicle for left-wing Peronists and incorporated much of the official Peronist structure. Among the early leaders in Dissident Peronism also included Misiones Province Senator Ramón Puerta, Buenos Aires Province Congressman Carlos Ruckauf, and union leader Luis Barrionuevo [es]. Barrionuevo, unlike most members of the CGT, was allied with Menem, who arguably remained the most prominent spokesman for neo-liberal policies in Argentina.

2009 edit

The 2008 Argentine government conflict with the agricultural sector over a proposed rise in export tariffs led to a sharp drop in presidential approval ratings, and numerous FpV lawmakers from more agrarian provinces broke with the party. The defections, which included 16 Lower House members and 4 Senators, thus resulted in the reemergence of Federal Peronism. The conflict also prompted Luis Barrionuevo, whose alliance with Menem had cost him support in the CGT, to organize a splinter trade union confederation, the "Blue and White CGT," to challenge the center-left wing leadership of Secretary General Hugo Moyano, albeit unsuccessfully.[19] A dissident Peronist who as an ally of Menem had never joined the FpV, businessman Francisco de Narváez, in turn formed an alliance with the center-right PRO in Buenos Aires Province and the city of Buenos Aires for the 2009 elections.[20]

The elections resulted in a setback for the governing, center-left Front for Victory and its allies, which lost their absolute majorities in both houses of Congress.[21] Former President Néstor Kirchner stood as head of the FpV party list in the important Buenos Aires Province. Kirchner's list was defeated, however, by the center-right PRO/Federal Peronism list headed by de Narváez;[22] the loss in Buenos Aires Province, though narrow, was significant as the province had helped maintain Kirchnerism as the dominant force in Argentine politics since 2003.[21]

Federal Peronism emerged from the 2009 mid-term elections with 45 Congressmen and 10 Senators, becoming the fourth and third-largest caucus in each house, respectively.

2011 edit

The alliance began preparations for the 2011 elections by agreeing to a primary election for April 3, thereby uniting behind a single candidate.[23] Among the candidates running in the Federal Peronist primary were: former President Eduardo Duhalde; Senators Adolfo Rodríguez Saá, Juan Carlos Romero, and Carlos Reutemann; Congressmen Felipe Solá and Francisco de Narváez; and Governor Mario Das Neves.[24] An alliance with PRO was also actively considered;[25][26]

Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri expressed unwillingness to accept a running mate from outside PRO ranks, but ultimately withdrew his bid for the presidency.[27]

Trailing in the polls ahead of the 2011 elections,[28][29] Federal Peronists remained divided between Duhalde's Popular Front and Alberto Rodríguez Saá's Federal Commitment even after the national August primaries,[30][31][32] with Rodríguez Saá attracting upscale voters, and Duhalde, older, mainly working-class voters.[33] They finished third and fourth place in the October general election with 8% and 6% of the total vote, respectively.[34][35]

2013 edit

Governor José Manuel de la Sota of Córdoba Province formally became a dissident Peronist in September 2012 by establishing a local Justicialist Party faction opposed to Kirchnerism.[36]

2017 edit

Between 2017 and 2019, Federal Peronism sought to consolidate itself as a third force other than the ruling party and Kirchnerism, bringing together several of its members in the Federal Alternative space, led by the Governor of Salta, Juan Manuel Urtubey, the Governor of Cordoba, Juan Schiaretti, the leader of the Renewal Front Sergio Massa, and the Senator for Río Negro, Miguel Ángel Pichetto. After several round trips, and the failure of negotiations between said space and the former Minister of Economy and presidential candidate Roberto Lavagna, Federal Alternative began to crack.

2019 edit

In June 2019, the main references joined other parties: Miguel Ángel Pichetto,[37] Adolfo Rodríguez Saá[38] and Juan Carlos Romero joined Juntos por el Cambio; Sergio Massa allies joined the Frente de Todos[39] and Juan Manuel Urtubey joined Federal Consensus.[40] Carlos Menem sat in the Frente de Todos in the Senate.

Electoral history edit

Presidential elections edit

Election year Candidate(s) Primaries First Round Second Round Result Party - Coalition
# votes % vote # votes % vote # votes % vote
2003 Carlos Menem 4,741,202 24.45  N Won in the first round,
but he resigned for the second round
Front for Loyalty
Adolfo Rodríguez Saá 2,736,091 14.11  N Defeated Front of the Popular Movement
2007 Alberto Rodríguez Saá 1,458,955 7.64  N Defeated Justice, Union and Liberty Front
Jorge Sobisch 268,401 1.40  N Defeated Movement of the United Provinces
2011 Eduardo Duhalde 2,595,996 12.10 1,285,830 5.86  N Defeated Popular Front
Alberto Rodríguez Saá 1,749,971 8.17 1,745,354 7.96  N Defeated Federal Commitment
2015 Mauricio Macri 5,523,413 24.49 8,601,131 34.15 12,988,349 51.34  Y Won Cambiemos
Sergio Massa 3,230,887 14.33 5,386,965 21.39  N Defeated United for a New Alternative
José Manuel de la Sota 1,408,518 6.25  N Defeated
Adolfo Rodríguez Saá 472,341 2.09 412,577 1.64  N Defeated Federal Commitment
2019 Mauricio Macri 8,121,689 31.80 10,811,345 40.28  N Defeated Juntos por el Cambio
Roberto Lavagna 2,081,315 8.15 1,649,315 6.14  N Defeated Federal Consensus
2023 Sergio Massa 5,277,538 22.68 9,853,492 36.78 11,516,142 44.31  N Defeated Union for the Homeland
Juan Schiaretti 914,812 3.93 1,802,068 6.73  N Defeated We Do for Our Country

Congressional elections edit

Chamber of Deputies edit

Election year votes % seats won Total seats Position Presidency Note
2005 1,812,831 10.6 16
65 / 257
Minority Néstor Kirchner (FPV—PJ)
2007 681,404 2
9 / 257
Minority Néstor Kirchner (FPV—PJ)
2009
45 / 257
Minority Cristina Kirchner (FPV—PJ)
2011 771,288 3.8 10
39 / 257
Minority Cristina Kirchner (FPV—PJ)
2013 5,903,016 25.74 26
37 / 257
Minority Cristina Kirchner (FPV—PJ)
2015 4,390,461 18.83 16
41 / 257
Minority Mauricio Macri (Cambiemos-PRO)
2017 6,015,303 24.64 31
72 / 257
Minority Mauricio Macri (Cambiemos-PRO)
2019 1,878,282 7.33 4
10 / 257
Minority Alberto Fernández (FDT-PJ)
2021 1,313,858 5.65 3
5 / 257
Minority Alberto Fernández (FDT-PJ)

Senate elections edit

Election year votes % seats won Total seats Position Presidency Note
2005 1,423,365 17.9 4
21 / 72
Minority Néstor Kirchner (FPV—PJ)
2007 333,230 0
4 / 72
Minority Néstor Kirchner (FPV—PJ)
2009
10 / 72
Minority Cristina Kirchner (FPV—PJ)
2011 665,193 6.6 2
8 / 72
Minority Cristina Kirchner (FPV—PJ)
2013 213,676 4.15 1
9 / 72
Minority Cristina Kirchner (FPV—PJ)
2015 1,235,581 17.31 1
6 / 72
Minority Mauricio Macri (Cambiemos-PRO)
2017 1,154,657 9.73 0
0 / 72
Extra-parliamentary Mauricio Macri (Cambiemos-PRO)
2019 327,962 5.82 0
0 / 72
Extra-parliamentary Alberto Fernández (FDT-PJ)
2021 735,725 10.57 1
1 / 72
Minority Alberto Fernández (FDT-PJ)

References edit

  1. ^ "Con el aval de Pichetto, lanzan la juventud de "peronistas republicanos"" [With the endorsement of Pichetto, the youth of "Republican Peronists" is launched] (in Spanish).
  2. ^ "El peronismo oficial y el disidente intentarán acaparar los comicios" [The official Peronism and the dissident will try to monopolize the elections]. La Nación (in Spanish). 5 October 2005. Retrieved 26 September 2009.
  3. ^ C.V, DEMOS, Desarrollo de Medios, S. A. de (2021-09-22). "La Jornada: Argentina: pandemia+ajuste = anomia social". www.jornada.com.mx (in Mexican Spanish). Retrieved 2023-12-12.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ Criales, José Pablo (2023-11-21). "Un peronismo derrotado entra en proceso de reconstrucción". El País Argentina (in Spanish). Retrieved 2023-12-12.
  5. ^ Casullo, María Esperanza. "Mauricio Macri, ¿liberal o populista?" (PDF). {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  6. ^ Clarín, Redacción (2011-03-22). "Acuerdo oficial entre Menem y los K en la Rioja". Clarín (in Spanish). Retrieved 2023-12-12.
  7. ^ ABDO, GERARDO DAVID OMAR (2014-11-13). "Peronismo Federal: ambicion y despretigio hechos fuerza politica". Monografias.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 2023-12-12.
  8. ^ Clarín, Redacción (2009-11-02). "Duhalde va a la pelea del PJ, pero no contra los aliados "forzados" de los K". Clarín (in Spanish). Retrieved 2024-01-13.
  9. ^ ABDO, GERARDO DAVID OMAR (2014-11-13). "Peronismo Federal: ambicion y despretigio hechos fuerza politica". Monografias.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 2023-12-12.
  10. ^ www.lapoliticaonline.com https://www.lapoliticaonline.com/amp/73710-peronismo-federal-todos-unidos-perderemos/. Retrieved 2023-12-12. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  11. ^ Inc, IBP (2016-04-18). Argentina Business Law Handbook Volume 2 Investment, Trade Laws and Regulations. Lulu.com. ISBN 978-1-57751-825-9. {{cite book}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  12. ^ "Acuerdo del PJ disidente: enfrentará a Kirchner" [Agreement of the dissident PJ: will confront Kirchner]. La Nación (in Spanish). 10 June 2010. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  13. ^ "El peronismo oficial y el disidente intentarán acaparar los comicios" [The official Peronism and the dissident will try to monopolize the elections]. La Nación (in Spanish). 5 October 2005. Retrieved 26 September 2009.
  14. ^ "En el 2003, el peronismo logra el mayor predominio político-electoral de los últimos veinte años" [In 2003, Peronism achieved the greatest political-electoral predominance in the last twenty years] (in Spanish). Centro de Estudios Nueva Mayoría. 25 November 2003. Retrieved 26 September 2009.
  15. ^ Todo Argentina: Kirchner (in Spanish)
  16. ^ "Un Presidente fuerte, con límits" [A strong President, with limits]. Clarín (in Spanish).
  17. ^ "Duhalde dejará la política y su sector queda en libertad de acción" [Duhalde will leave politics and his sector is free to act]. La Nación (in Spanish).
  18. ^ "Argentina's first lady wins poll". BBC News. 30 October 2007.
  19. ^ "Se fracturó la CGT tras la reelección de Moyano" [The CGT fractured after the re-election of Moyano]. La Nación (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 13 August 2008.
  20. ^ Clarín: El peronismo disidente y el macrismo, en un encuentro para limar asperezas (in Spanish)
  21. ^ a b BBC News: Argentine President set for poll blow
  22. ^ Diario La Nación
  23. ^ Ámbito Financiero: Peronismo Federal fijó fecha de su primera interna: será el 3 de abril (in Spanish)
  24. ^ Revista Debate: Derecha económica y derecha política Archived 2011-04-26 at the Wayback Machine (in Spanish)
  25. ^ Desde el Peronismo Federal no descartan una alianza con Macri, La Nación (in Spanish)
  26. ^ "El pro y Rodriguez Saa ya formalizaron un frente en Mendoza". mdzol. Archived from the original on 3 August 2011. Retrieved 2 July 2011.
  27. ^ "No me veo con alguien que no sea de Pro", La Nación
  28. ^ Ahora Info: Encuestas. Poliarquía revela a una Cristina imbatible Archived 2011-04-02 at the Wayback Machine (in Spanish)
  29. ^ La Crónica: Cristina Fernández encabeza encuestas para 2011 Archived 2011-07-13 at the Wayback Machine (in Spanish)
  30. ^ "Rodríguez Saá: "Soy el candidato a presidente por el Peronismo Federal"" [Rodríguez Saá: "I am the candidate for president for Federal Peronism"]. La Nación (in Spanish). 26 April 2011. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  31. ^ "Eduardo Duhalde officially launches presidential campaign". Buenos Aires Herald.
  32. ^ "Vernet confirms he will be Rodríguez Saá's running mate". Buenos Aires Herald.
  33. ^ "Cómo será el voto a la oposición" [How will the vote for the opposition be?]. La Nación (in Spanish).
  34. ^ "Interna del PJ Federal: Rodríguez Saá se adjudicó la victoria - TN.com.ar". Todo Noticias (in Spanish). 17 April 2011. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  35. ^ "Elecciones Nacionales 2011 (Presidente)". Dirección Nacional Electoral. Archived from the original on 2012-09-06.
  36. ^ "De la Sota estrena su alianza peronista disidente". Buenos Aires Económico. Archived from the original on 2013-01-21.
  37. ^ "Miguel Ángel Pichetto será el vice de Mauricio Macri en la fórmula de Cambiemos". Infobae (in European Spanish). 11 June 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  38. ^ "Rodríguez Saá met with Macri and joins the ruling party in the Congress". La Nación (in Spanish). July 18, 2019. Retrieved August 28, 2019.
  39. ^ "Sergio Massa confirmed that he will be a candidate for national deputy". www.perfil.com. 18 June 2019. Retrieved August 28, 2019.
  40. ^ "Roberto Lavagna will head the formula presidential with Urtubey as vice". La Nación. June 12, 2019. Retrieved August 28, 2019.