Last minute Kirchnerist backflip: UP tweeted that Massa runs as the only presidential candidate

ARGENTINA - In Brief 24 Jun 2023 by Esteban Fernández Medrano

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In a surprising backflip, the ruling coalition “Unión por la Patria” (UP) announced yesterday night (June 23) through its official Twitter account, that Sergio Massa is going to be the only presidential candidate, accompanied by Augustín Rossi, current Chief of Cabinet, and close ally of President Alberto Fernández. Both Daniel Scioli and Wado de Pedro were said to have stepped down. This game-changing announcement came roughly speaking only 24hrs before the deadline to present the candidates in the primaries (ending at midnight June 24) and only one day after Kirchnerist Wado de Pedro had officially launched his candidacy against Peronist Daniel Scioli, who, by the way, had to battle bitterly over the last days against the “Kirchnerist political machinery” for his candidacy to be formally accepted and repeatedly stated that he would “under no circumstances” step down. Wado de Pedro is said to run now as the first senator for the province of Buenos Aires, a position that was rumored to have been offered to Massa when the Kirchnerist candidate was WdP and could also have been a strategic position for Cristina Fernández de Kirchner if she had not decided to decline to participate in these elections. How to read this last-minute change? The first and obvious observation is that neither Massa nor Rossi are Kirchnerists, as WdP or Axcel Kicillof are. Clearly, the current presidential candidates are not CFK's first choice, but instead are the consequence of feverish last-minute negotiations, underscoring the difficult electoral outlook for the UP. True, both candidates are nowadays in relatively good standing with CFK (particularly Massa), but they don’t have the support of ...