Countering the Peronists

On Wednesday, November 18th, the Argentine political coalition Broad Front UNEN suffered its first fracture as Elisa Carrió, one of the five presidential candidates in the coalition, announced her departure from the coalition. The coalition is formed by several parties and was founded in April 2014 with the purpose of uniting the parties that oppose Peronism into a single entity. The question of including the Republican Proposal (PRO), a party led by Buenos Aires mayo had been hotly debated. The controversy arose from the fact that Macri is a conservative while most parties within the coalition are left-wing or center-left in ideology. On the flip side, many perceived Macri’s support as crucial in countering the powerful Peronist parties in Argentina. The growing infighting in the coalition began when Carrió opened the door to an electoral alliance with the PRO party, which was rejected by Fernando Solanas of the Proyecto Sur party and the Radical Civic Union (UCR) party, arguably the largest force behind the coalition. Carrió, founder of the party Civic Coalition ARI, left the coalition citing that “the decision not to ally with Macri is the best way for Peronism to win the election”.  Upon Carrió’s departure, Solanas was cited saying that UNEN will stay together, that the coalition “has enough potential”, and that it has no need for external alliances. He acknowledged that Carrió’s break from the coalition caused significant damage, but also noted that despite the setback, the coalition was far from its end.

Peronism, an Argentine political movement based on the legacy of former President Juan Domingo Perón and his second wife Eva Perón, is arguably the most prominent ideology in Argentine politics. At its inception, the three “flags” or pillars of the Peronist idealology were social justice, economic independence, and political sovereignty. Over time, Peronism has become more of a movement than a narrowly-defined political ideology, as various parties and leaders have embraced some parts of the original philosophy but rejected others. Today, Peronism is most often espoused by leftists, working class citizens and union members and is now considered mainly a proletarian school of thought. From the perspective of some opponents, Peronism was an authoritarian ideology during Perón’s regime. Socialists decried the corporatist character of Peronism citing capitalist exploitation and the deepening of class division. On other fronts, conservatives rejected its modernist ideology, while liberals condemned the Perón regime's dictatorial tendencies.

Defenders of Peronism, on the other hand, believe that the movement champions the interests of the masses. Since the founding of Peronism in 1946, Peronist candidates have won 9 of the 11 presidential elections that they have not been banned from participating in. Peronism has dominated Argentine politics for more than 60 years, but the movement has often splintered and its leaders do not occupy a fixed point on the political spectrum. The Justicialist Party (PJ) is the official Peronist party in Argentina, although breakaway parties have formed since the early 1990s. For instance, Peronist Nestor Kirchner was elected president of Argentina running as a member the Front for Victory in 2003 and later succeeded by his widow Cristina Kirchner, the current president of Argentina. The Broad Front coalition is currently the largest opposition bloc against Peronism in the Argentina political landscape.

General elections will be held in Argentina on October 25th, 2015, and the Broad Front UNEM candidate will be announced after the primaries take place on August 9th, 2015 as the coalition seeks to end the 12-year period of Kirchner’s government. Many economists blame the current administration for the Argentine economy’s decline, and after a decade of family rule in Argentina, midterm elections on October 2013 gave new momentum to the opposition. Although—or perhaps because—Kirchner has overseen an expansion of social benefits, a liberal social agenda and a string of nationalizations, discontent with her administration is widespread. Voters who accuse her of centralizing power say it is time for a change. The Constitution blocks Kirchner from running for a third consecutive term, and issues like poverty, inflation and exchange rates will be central on the public agenda once the candidates start competing for presidency in 2015. Given what many perceive as the inability of the current government to effectively deal with Argentina’s economic weaknesses, it will be interesting to see how the general population will vote and whether or not the opposition will finally be able to break the Peronists’ hold on power.