Former Argentine President Cristina Kirchner launches Senate bid under United Citizens banner
Former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner announced her candidacy today for a seat in the Argentine Senate representing Buenos Aires Province, the nation's largest.
Mrs. Kirchner, 64, will not run on an official Justicialist Party (JP) ticket but instead on a Citizens United ticket representing her own Front for Victory (FpV) and a number of smaller, progressive parties as well as numerous JP figures.
The move would allow an ally of Mrs. Kirchner's, former Transport Minister Florencio Randazzo, to run in the August primaries without having to step aside for the final round of voting in October.
Recent polling shows Mrs. Kirchner ahead with 43%, with the centrist Renewal Front (led by Congressman Sergio Massa, who represents the Peronist right) at 20%, the right-wing 'Let's Change' coalition (led by President Mauricio Macri's education minister, Esteban Bullrich) at 20%, Randazzo at 6%, and the FIT Leftist Front (led by its 2015 presidential candidate Nicolás del Caño) at 4%.
·Peronist divisions·
Randazzo, 53, served during the entirety of Mrs. Kirchner's 2007-15 presidency as interior minister until 2012 and transport minister until 2015. He's best remembered for his effective management of the renationalization and refurbishment of Argentina's formerly privatized and dilapidated commuter rail network.
Both Kirchner and Randazzo represent the JP's left wing, which rose to prominence during the 2003-07 presidency of Cristina Kirchner's late husband and predecessor Néstor Kirchner - a period marked by a strong recovery from the 2001 collapse and rising living standards.
The Justicialist Party was originally founded as the Labor Party in 1945 by the late populist leader Juan Perón and his wife, Evita. While broadly populist and social democratic, Peronism has, even since before Perón's death in 1974, suffered deep divisions between its socialist-leaning left and more nationalist right.
·Voter disillusionment·
Voters in Buenos Aires Province, home to 16 million people (38% of the nation's total), have been trending away from candidates tied to the Argentina's increasingly unpopular president, Mauricio Macri.
Narrowly elected in 2015 with staunch support from Argentina's corporate media, his support has eroded amid the worst recession since 2002 with real wages down 11% and unemployment rising from 5.9% in 2015 to 9.2% currently.
Macri's ties to corruption scandals such as Brazil's Lava Jato and Odebrecht bribery cases, his family's Postal Service debt write-off and Panama Papers scandals, as well as reports of judicial harassment against opponents, have further eroded his credibility among all but right-wing voters.
The president's allies have attempted to preclude Mrs. Kirchner from returning to politics by launching a series of investigations against her - most of which, like the $4 billion dollar futures case and those related to jailed public contractor Lázaro Báez, backfired after evidence showed the Macri family were the chief beneficiaries.
His bid to impose electronic voting nationwide, moreover, failed last November after cybersecurity experts proved to Congress that the system made voters' private information easy to access and was vulnerable to tampering.
"After the deception and the electoral fraud, now a second phase of austerity," Mrs. Kirchner told supporters in Buenos Aires after presenting her 15-point pro-labor, pro-industry program. "Citizens must unite if we are to have a future again."
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