MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

CFK chosen Peronist Party Chairwoman

Quintela will not challenge the outcome so that the Peronist Party is a united force for the times to come

The Justicialist (Peronist) Party's (PJ) Electoral Board Tuesday confirmed former two-time President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (CFK) as the new party chairwoman after no other contender challenged her “Primero La Patria” list following the dismissal of La Rioja Governor Ricardo Quintela's bid for allegedly lacking the necessary endorsements. CFK won by 13 votes to 1.

“The Electoral Board of the Justicialist Party resolved today to proclaim the list 'Primero la Patria', headed by Cristina Fernández de Kirchner,” the PJ Board said in a statement.

In this context, Quintela's “Federales, un grito de Corazón” front urged all Peronists to remain loyal to the PJ, which “is more than a political force,” thus ruling out the possibility of further legal challenges to CFK's appointment.

“Federales proposes a Peronism that is more than a political force; it is a movement of social and cultural transformation that not only responds to the needs of the present, but also anticipates the future, building a world where everyone has a place, a voice, and a purpose”, Quintela's sector stressed.

Congratulating CFK on her victory were Quintela, Buenos Aires Governor Axel Kicillof, and other party leaders who will join her build up an opposition force to President Javier Milei's Libertarians ahead of next year's mid-term elections.

By a wide majority, the Electoral Board of the PJ put an end to the eventful and judicialized agony of the internal party elections, ratifying the decision it had taken on October 26 when it decided to make official the list headed by CFK and not that of Quintela. Of the 15 leaders that make up the Board, the dissenting vote came from María Eugenia Catalfamo, a former San Luis Senator loyal to Alberto Rodríguez Saá, who had been Quintela's running mate for the party leadership. Hilda Aguirre of La Rioja chose not to vote, after Quintela's disqualification.

“We leave behind the internal PJ. The time to come will find us with Ricardo Quintela walking the deep interior of Argentina to build the National Movement 'FEDERALES',” announced Quintela's advisor Jorge Yoma.