Martina Jaureguy 
This article was updated on Monday, October 7 at 7:03 p.m.
The wait for many within the Partido Justicialista (PJ) ended at 3:13 p.m. on Monday when former President and Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner announced she would run to become the party’s leader in the upcoming November 17 internal elections.
“I want to thank all my comrades for the show of love and supportive messages to be the president of our party. I have never taken a role without being certain that I’m qualified for the task entrusted to me, with no fear or pressure,” she wrote in a five-page open letter uploaded to Google Drive and published on X.
“I want to tell you that I’m willing, once again, to accept the challenge of debating together because if there’s one thing clear in my mind it’s that everybody belongs here. However, unity needs direction and a project to build the best possible Peronism in an Argentina that has become impossible for most of its inhabitants.”
After almost 10 months of lethargy, Peronism, the largest opposition sector, seems to be awaking ahead of the PJ party elections in November to choose its new president — a vote that will determine who will compete against President Javier Milei’s chosen candidates for Congress in 2025.
Peronism was left without a clear leader after the November 2023 runoff, in which Milei defeated Peronist candidate and then-Economy Minister Sergio Massa. Although former Argentine President Alberto Fernández remained the head of the party, he was widely viewed as a lame duck, having already lost the popular support to run for re-election. In March 2024, he asked for a leave of absence during a PJ congress and formally resigned in August amid allegations of gender-based violence from his former partner, Fabiola Yáñez.
Potential nominees for the party leadership have until October 19 to join the ballot, with Kirchner and La Rioja Governor Ricardo Quintela being the only ones to have signaled their intention to run and the most likely candidates. Many in the Kirchnerist movement want the former president to take charge while others are calling for a changing of the guard. Who, then, will lead Peronism out of the political wilderness?
Kirchner vs. Quintela
“I believe Cristina and of course, I believe in my own convictions. To all my comrades of the PJ in the provinces who send me their messages: I will keep on going and meeting you face to face with you in every corner of the country,” said Quintela on X in response to Kirchner’s announcement.
Quintela has been traveling around the country for weeks now with the clear intention of building his electoral profile. Before Kirchner’s open letter on Monday, it looked like he might run unopposed, with Kirchnerist leaders carrying out what is known in Argentina as a “clamor operation” to make Cristina the new party president.
“She is Peronism’s leader and has shown her unbreakable commitment to the dreams and wishes of our people countless times,” wrote former Interior Minister Eduardo “Wado” de Pedro on X. “It is time for a woman, who has been a Peronist activist her whole life, to be president of the PJ for the first time.”
Several local Kirchnerist leaders, lawmakers, and mayors from towns located on the outskirts of Buenos Aires city — a key region in any national election given its population density — also expressed their support for Kirchner’s potential candidacy.
Peronist governors, meanwhile, have declined to back Kirchner and may ultimately align with Quintela. They include Buenos Aires Province Governor Axel Kicillof, who had been seen with his La Rioja counterpart before the “clamor operation” began on Thursday.
For over a year, Kicillof has been the subject of harsh criticism from La Campora — an activist wing of Kirchnerism led by Kirchner’s son, Máximo Kirchner. While Kiciloff has always been close with the former vice president, he and Máximo are widely viewed as provincial rivals.
On Saturday, Quintela said in an interview with Futurock radio station that he wants to have internal debates within Peronism that include leaders from the provinces instead of only those from Buenos Aires. He also criticized the social media-based “clamor operation,” saying “such important matters can’t be discussed on X.”
“[Kirchner] can’t be just thrown into this [race],” Quintela said. “Those who want to come out and talk should do so, but don’t hide under her skirt.”
Quintela said that he has a good relationship with Kirchner but emphasized that the PJ needs to have an internal debate, adding that he didn’t think the “clamor operation” was her idea. “She is fit for greater things than this,” he continued. “This is something we activists need to do: reorganize Peronism and call for all comrades to participate.”
In her open letter, Kirchner also cited the need to “create a space for discussion and participation that doesn’t exist today and the absence of which only generates confusion and a vacuum.”
A party divided
Máximo Kirchner is currently head of the Buenos Aires Province PJ and will seek reelection on November 17. On Saturday, he conducted a meeting with over 50 members of the provincial branch of the party who agreed to back his mother for the national PJ post.
During a rally in La Plata on September 20 — one in which Máximo was the main speaker — attendees chanted the following: “Cristina is our leader, let’s see if you get it […] And if you want another song, I can lend you mine.”
The last line, which references Kiciloff’s call last year for “new songs” and fresh leadership within the Peronist movement, was a clear jab at the Buenos Aires governor.
Before publishing the open letter, Kirchner made several public appearances in recent weeks, which is uncommon for her. On Wednesday, she greeted protesters from her office balcony near Congress during a march to protest Milei’s veto of funding for public universities and later backed their demands in an interview with C5N.
Last month, while accepting an honorary doctorate from the National West University in Merlo, Kirchner delivered a speech in which she harshly criticized the Milei administration. Both Kicillof and De Pedro were there with her.
Days earlier, she had written a letter dissecting not just the mistakes of the current government but of the one led by Alberto Fernández, in which she served as vice president. Peronism, she argued, had become grossly distorted in recent years.
The conclusion of her open letter on Monday claimed that the party’s objective should be to “conceive of our party as the instrument that must take the first step in regrouping all political and social forces behind a government program that can give hope and pride in being Argentine back to this Argentina submersed in the cruelty and hatred of fools.”
The question is, does she believe she is the only one who can fix it?
