In the early hours of the morning, on the verge of a split, Peronism closed its lists under the guise of Fuerza Patria, and did so with key names in the electoral sections with the largest number of voters ahead of the split election on September 7 in the Province. The effort nearly exploded, and minutes before the start of the Sunday campaign, they had to request an extension from the Electoral Board before reaching unity.
After a very tense Friday night, a meeting was held on Saturday morning to calm things down. Sergio Massa called Cristina Kirchner and gave her their last names. The Frente Renovador party maintains that Axel Kicillof did the same and received the other last names to take notes.
Who are the Peronist candidates?
However, throughout Saturday, the atmosphere became extremely tense. Four hours before the deadline to submit lists of candidates for provincial senators, provincial deputies, councilors, and school counselors, the mayors who answer to Kicillof, within the Right to a Future Movement (MDF), were ordered to put together complete lists without La Cámpora and the Massismo. This was further pressure to show they were willing to stand by their positions.
Finally, those chosen were: Gabriel Katopodis, Diego Nanni, Veronica Magario, Diego Videla, Fernanda Raverta, Alejandro Di Chiara, María Inés Laurini and Ariel Archanco will lead the 8 electoral sections, from the first to the eighth, in that order.
In this way, Katopodis and Magario were at the top of the list of the two most populated areas of Buenos Aires, since between the first and third sections they add up to more than 9.5 million voters, 70% of the total in the Province.
Katopodis, Kicillof, and Magario, in a 2019 photo.
Thus, the PJ (Party of the People's Party) has finally defined its candidates, who will compete on September 7 for 69 seats in the provincial legislature—46 in the House of Representatives and 23 in the Senate—across the eight electoral sections into which the province is divided. This will be the first time in several decades that this election will be separate from the national elections, which, in the case of Buenos Aires, will only designate deputies for Congress and will take place on October 26.
The seats in the Buenos Aires Legislature, a body that has been shrouded in secrecy for many years and recently returned to the front pages when the scandal of the diversion of salaries of employees appointed to the body to a network of political party officials was revealed, won't be the only thing provincial voters will be voting on in September. The deliberative councils of the 135 municipalities will also be renewed.
The PJ's slate was defined after a Saturday of tense negotiations, during which two power outages complicated the registration of the slates and the submission of the necessary documentation. This led the Electoral Board to extend the deadline for completing the submission procedures until 2:00 p.m. this Monday.
One by one, who are the Peronist candidates in each section of the Province?
Gabriel Katopodis, current Minister of Infrastructure for the province of Buenos Aires, will head the Fuerza Patria list in the First Section, which brings together parties located in the north and northwest of Greater Buenos Aires. For these elections, it is the Buenos Aires area with the largest number of voters, with 4,732,831 native voters and 399,030 foreign voters.
Gabriel Katopodis, current Kicillof official. Photo: Marcelo Carroll
Katopodis, who has been a Buenos Aires official since December 2023, also served as Minister of Public Works in Alberto Fernández's administration between 2019 and 2023. Previously, he served as mayor of the town of San Martín for two consecutive terms.
In the Second Section, the Peronist list will be headed by Diego Nanni, mayor of Exaltación de la Cruz, who is serving his second consecutive term. This section, made up of 15 municipalities in the north of the Province, has 661,721 voters (12,256 foreigners).
The Third Section will feature Vice Governor Verónica Magario at the top of the Fuerza Patria party's list. Magario is serving her second consecutive term as Axel Kicillof's deputy. Previously, she served as mayor of La Matanza from 2015 to 2019. The party will have the opportunity to vote for her on September 7.
Verónica Magario will take the place that Cristina Kirchner was going to have.
She was also a national deputy from 2013 to 2015 and worked as a mathematics teacher. Until this year, the Third Section was the area of the Province with the largest number of native voters, until it was surpassed by the First. Currently, this group of 19 municipalities in the southern suburbs has 5,101,177 registered voters, of which 463,314 are foreigners, representing 45.64%. Camporista Diego Videla will be the head of the Peronist list in the Fourth Section. He currently serves as president of the Honorable Deliberative Council of Pehuajó, where residents can vote for him to be a provincial deputy. The Fourth Section has 19 districts in the northwest of the Province and 547,677 voters (7,323 foreigners).
The former director of ANSES and La Cámpora activist, Fernanda Raverta, was elected to represent the PJ in the Fifth Section, made up of 27 municipalities in the southeast of Buenos Aires, with 1,336,787 voters (45,839 born outside the country).
In addition to serving as a national official during Alberto Fernández's administration, she previously served as Minister of Community Development for the province of Buenos Aires, was a national deputy, and ran for mayor of General Pueyrredón in 2023. She is the daughter of missing persons and the founder of the HIJOS group in the Mar del Plata branch.
Alejandro Dichiara, vice president of the Chamber of Deputies of the province of Buenos Aires, will head the Peronist list in the Sixth Section, with 22 districts in the southwest and 672,483 voters (20,406 foreigners).
Alejandro Dichiara, along with Máximo Kirchner.
The Seventh Section, in the center of the Province, will have as its candidate María Inés Laurini, current member of the Deliberative Council of the city of Azul. The Seventh Section has 8 communes and 285,047 voters (3,917 foreigners).
The Eighth Section, which only includes the municipality of La Plata, has 639,839 voters (63,148 foreigners). The candidate will be Camporist Ariel Archanco, currently a deputy from Buenos Aires Province and head of the Public Services Commission in the chamber. He is also the president of the PJ (Party of the People's Party) in La Plata.
D.D.
