Argentina's dominant political force, Peronism, is too fractured to hold formal presidential primaries but Sunday's mid-term election should get the job done. More than a third of Argentines live in Buenos Aires province, and most of them will vote for one of two Peronists running for Congress in the province but eyeing the 2011 presidential race: former President Nestor Kirchner and millionaire businessman Francisco de Narvaez. Kirchner is running to secure his own political future and shore up the troubled presidency of his wife and successor, President Cristina Fernandez. But polls show him in a tight race with De Narvaez, a dissident Peronist. “Peronism is the dominant political force in Argentina and all the contradictions of the country are reflected there,” said Pascual Albanese, vice president of the Strategic Planning Institute think tank. Peronism is a Populist, nationalist movement that draws politicians from the left and right. It has been the main force in Argentine politics since the election of its namesake, strongman General Juan Peron, in 1946. The rousing anthem “Peron, Peron” is a staple at flag-waving rallies where the Kirchners find a bedrock of support in the party's traditional working-class base. Under Argentina's proportional election system, Kirchner and De Narvaez will divide up among their allies most of the 35 lower house seats up for grabs in Buenos Aires Province, which does not include the capital city. The Kirchners' Victory Front wing of the Peronist party is expected to lose control of the lower house as De Narvaez's rival movement gains ground. De Narvaez was born in Colombia but says that should not bar him from seeking the presidency. Another Peronist, Senator Carlos Reutemann from Santa Fe province, is running for re-election to the Senate but also to position himself for the presidential race two years from now. Peronist vote Even non-Peronists are latching on to the Peronist vote in the mid-term to shape their political future. Center-right Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri has his own political party, PRO, but he is allied with De Narvaez and so his own star could rise if the dissident Peronists do well in Buenos Aires province. In the country's last three national elections, general and mid-terms, more than half of Argentines voted for one faction or another of Peronism. The country's political parties were severely damaged when Argentines turned against all politicians during the severe social and economic crisis in 2001-2002, when the currency was devaluated and millions of people lost their jobs. The Radical Civic Union, the traditional opposition, was badly damaged during the crisis “leaving Peronism with a virtual monopoly of governability,” Albanese said. Since the Peronist party is seen as the only one that can win elections, it draws politicians of all stripes. But the warring factions cannot agree enough to hold primaries. In 2003, three Peronists ran for president. Kirchner won that race by default after former President Carlos Menem dropped out, and four years later his wife was elected without a primary, after running on a promise to continue the economic boom times under Kirchner. “This speaks to the weakness of the political parties,” said Pablo Secchi, director of Political and Government Institutions in the Citizen Power organization, a think tank. “They can't solve their issues internally democratically so they take their problems to a national election.”
