A working group of representatives from the parties within ruling coalition, Frente de Todos, will meet on Thursday evening at the Justicialista party’s headquarters in Buenos Aires. 

The meeting was summoned by Alberto Fernández, as president of the party. The aim is to analyze political strategy for October’s elections, when the president, governors, congress members, and mayors will be elected. Fernández himself will chair the meeting, and will be accompanied by Foreign Minister, Santiago Cafiero.

President Fernández announced on Sunday that the meeting would be held. It came after high-profile Frente de Todos figures including Máximo Kirchner, Sergio Massa, Axel Kicillof and Mayra Mendoza met in Merlo without inviting the president.  Leaders including Máximo Kirchner called for discussions on how the election would be carried out within their coalition. 

Sources told The Buenos Aires Herald that kirchnerism will be present at the working group, but it remains to be defined who will go. Máximo Kirchner, who insisted twice on the creation of these meetings, will not attend – sources said this was to avoid further conflict at a time of increasing political tensions between him and senior government officials – including Fernández. 

Earlier this week, Fernández hinted that he expects the Frente de Todos presidential ticket to be defined through primary elections. His remarks suggested that he could run in presidential primaries against rivals within his own government, an unprecedented situation for a sitting president in Argentina.  

Additionally, he said that the top priority is to win against Juntos por el Cambio and believes that the best candidate to lead the campaign should be defined through primary elections. 

Argentina’s electoral calendar starts with August primaries known as the PASO (Compulsory, Simultaneous, and Open Primary Elections), which define which parties and candidates will take part in October’s general election. All coalitions that reach 1.5% of total votes are qualified to run in the following stage, and each is led by the candidate who gained the most votes.