MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

“Kirchnerism is finished” but “not the Peronist party”

Mario Das Neves governor of Chubut and presidential hopeful

“Kirchnerism is finished” said the governor from the Patagonian province of Chubut and presidential hopeful, Mario Das Neves following a meeting on Tuesday with Buenos Aires Governor Daniel Scioli to discuss the next steps of the Peronist Party.

Das Neves said he asked Scioli, current caretaker chairman of the Peronist party, to call for internal elections in the party. Talking to reporters Das Neves, confirmed he is planning to run for the presidency in 2011 and said “the citizenry has put an end to their style of politics, but not to the Peronist party.”

“There's only one way to conceive the election results, we lost” he added and Peronists should invite businessman and Congressman Francisco de Narvaez to return. “The party should reopen its doors and improve dialogue”.

De Narvaez with support from Buenos Aires City mayor Conservative Mauricio Macri managed a stunning victory Sunday when their slate to the Lower House defeated none less than former President Nestor Kirchner and the structure of the Peronist party in their traditional stronghold of the province of Buenos Aires.

“Not admitting that the party received a strong signal is denying reality”, insisted Da Neves who added Peronism needs “fresh air, new faces” and the worst thing that could happen to the party is that “we come up with few candidates, and the same old boys”.

“People want to be governed with common sense, with logic, let’s put an end to that dangerous friend-enemy antinomy that was the official logic for so long”.

Das Naves said the party should improve dialogue between its different factions, and expressed his support to Scioli, who was appointed as head of the party following the resignation of ex-president Néstor Kirchner following his defeat a two percent margin to De Narváez.

“The citizenry has put an end to a way of acting but not to Peronism, which on Sunday, was present in all districts of the country and we continue to be the leading political force in Argentina”.

Das Neves was also critical of Elisa Carrió who belongs to the second most important political force and without mentioning her name said “people are not only fed up with confrontation but also with messianic preaching”.

He concluded saying that Sunday’s results were mostly a manifestation of protest, “a thumbs down vote” and also pointed towards De Narvaez, “no matter how committed and dedicated he is, he knows he was the product of very intelligent marketing and as such channelled the strong protest feeling among Argentine voters”.

Scioli earlier met with the head of the CGT General Labour Confederation, who said the party should be “reactivated” after it lost by a narrow margin to dissident Peronist Francisco de Narváez in Buenos Aires province.

Governor Das Neves is one of several Peronist governors with a long militancy in the party and who have a tight control over their provinces. As such he is a member of a non official council of successful Peronist leaders, not too powerful to overshadow peers, but who help steer the party in rough times or of uncertainty.

Although formally allied to Mr. Kirchner since as governors they shared common interests in fisheries, he has been a low key open critic of some attitudes of the ruling couple.