Guillermo Háskel
Herald Staff

 
Buenos Aires Governor Daniel Scioli, a former speedboat-racing world champion, faces stormy political seas ahead in case he actually manages to keep the wheel of the Peronist party left vacant by former president Néstor Kirchner after the blunt defeat they suffered in Buenos Aires province’s mid-term vote on Sunday.

Scioli was dealt a heavy blow mostly after an abrupt U-turn by “dissident” Peronist Santa Fe Senator Carlos Reutemann, a former Formula One ace who after initially hailing his appointment as Peronist chairman as a “step forward,” one day later said that he had not even bothered to return Scioli’s call, alleging that he has no interest in sharing the the party leadership.

Artemio López, a pollster who usually works for the government, told the Herald: “I initially thought that there was much more support for Scioli within the party but Reutemann’s move indicates that the winners are going for the party in earnest. There is no room for negotiations with anyone having to do with Kirchnerism.”

Heriberto Muraro, a sociologist close to former Córdoba governor José Manuel de la Sota, said that it was very hard to predict how long Scioli could last at the helm of Argentina’s largest party.

“There is an old saying in Peronism that goes ‘‘they will accompany you to the gates of the cemetery,’” he said.

De la Sota had accused Kirchner of resorting to Stalinist practices in the management of the party that the former president quit on Monday hours after his defeat in a vote that he and his wife said would be a referendum on their performance.

Kirchner resigned on Monday, anticipating that Peronist bigwigs would tell him to go, and left Scioli in command to pay the price of the defeat, observer Rosendo Fraga said.

“But Scioli’s great mistake is not having understood how the Peronist power machine works. He is a defeated governor in negotiations with winning governors. That mistake is precisely what has led to a reaction such as that of Das Neves.’”

Chubut Governor Mario das Neves met with Scioli on Tuesday only to say after the meeting that “Kirchnerism is exhausted… The people put an end to a way of behaving, but not to the Peronist party.”
Das Neves, who last year launched his presidential candidacy for 2011, has wall-papered the Buenos Aires with posters with his picture just two days after Sunday’s vote.

Fraga said that Scioli could eventually manage to stay at the wheel, but without actually leading.
A possibility, Muraro said, could be seeking a more neutral Peronist leader who is not associated with Kirchner and who comes from a small province to ensure that he has no presidential hopes  and who could act as a sort of moderator while the party solves its infighting.

López said: “I thought that Scioli could somehow play that role, but reality shows that that will not occur.”
Scioli run together with Kirchner for the Lower House and after months of uncertainty he has just said that he will finally not take the Congressional seat to which was elected, but will continue governing the province. The strategy of his “testimonial” candidacy was explicitly aimed at wooing voters and sparked waves of outrage among the opposition.

Santa Fe Senator Roxana Latorre, a dissident Peronist who has just won re-election on Reutemann’s, had told the Herald during the campaign that if Scioli failed to take his Congressional seat that would be tantamount to fraud against the people.

Latorre is widely considered as a de-facto spokesperson for Reutemann.

Reutemann’s public acknowledgment that he refused to return Scioli’s call came at the same time many “dissident” Peronists, who won the vote that for many has marked the end of the Kirchnerite era, refused to be led by a man who had tied his fate to Kirchner and to his wife, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

Francico de Narváez, the centre-right Unión-PRO candidate who defeated Kirchner on Sunday, had also refused to become part of the Scioli leadership.

“Losers can never lead,” De Narváez said. De Narváez, a millionaire businessman with limited political experience, is a member of the Peronist party.

His ally Felipe Solá, a former Peronist governor between 2002-2007, said: “The Peronist party cannot be managed like a monarchy.”