A tumultuous fight in the peronism of Moreno shakes the Conurbano

The speech of

Cristina Kirchner

It has local references and the speakers installed in the square located in the center of Moreno hear it very loud. The recording is constantly repeating itself and highlights one of the many tents that promote the local mayor, Walter Festa, above the rest of those seen on the square. In this strategic neighborhood, opposite the train station,

the precandidates to the quartermaster

Through the forehead of all, much of their presence in the street is played face to face with flutes, flags and persuasion. Even the monument in San Martín is not free of liturgy and the surrounding bars are decorated with Festa parades. An advertising van with another precandidatory evidence adds to the scene, echoing in its speakers a cumbiera version of the Peronist march. On Moreno's central square, these days, there is no room for the tumultuous internal PJ.

The situation of Festa is an exception in Peronism, which has opted for the fact that its intendants do not have any detainees in the province of Buenos Aires. In Moreno, there is a situation contrary to this principle: seven lists will compete for the candidacy of Frente de Todos. Festa's internal challengers do not recognize him as a leader of Moreno's Peronism; the head of the municipality, without being able to be a single candidate, says that he encourages multiple trainees that they play all and that there is no doubt about their support. The streets of the neighborhood are a hot land in which everyone seeks presence, although Festa leaves behind several graffiti artists and street posters to several competitors.

"Obviously, we wanted to avoid the internal, but since there were more than 300 candidates to advise and advise school, 12 candidates for mayor [quedaron siete tras la intervención de la junta electoral partidaria]it seemed to me the healthiest to have internal. I just won a trainee, I know what it's like to win it and I know what it's like to close the doors, it happened in 2013, "Festa says.
THE NATION at the local monitoring center.

"It was a personal decision, I had the possibility, at the final stage, already at the meeting, to be able to tell everyone that there was no intern, it was I who said that if there was a trainee, everyone had to participate, "said the mayor. . According to account at
THE NATION a qualified source of the Buenos Aires PJ, the Buenos Aires intendants betting on a single list in Moreno, with Festa at the helm, but La Campora argued that, as a gesture, a detainee could be allowed in her own district, taking into account that "Cristina had the gesture of lowering the vice-president and Máximo Kirchner to the fifth deputy." Festa came to power in 2015 as mayor of La Campora, although he away from this structure headed by Cristina's son.

The electoral accessories of Festa on the central square are overwhelming. The leaflets given by his activists present him as "Walter Festa, that of Cristina, the one who confronted Vidal and found Moreno destroyed and in debt" and emphasizes: "With him, we manage to improve it". In the different places, there is a lot of graffiti and posters with her photo with Cristina, accompanied by the caption "All that is given with the heart returns".

In a square in Paso del Rey, where a fair for goods and bartering is organized, Mariel Fernández goes to visit and talk with neighbors. Identified with the Evita movement, she runs one of the lists that defies Festa, to whom she credits "the lack of leadership of local Peronism and a totally abandoned municipality." He says that there has been a tightening of the steward's activists and that he is encouraging the multiplication of lists to split the vote.

"As Festa was unable to avoid the detainee, she built other lists, the list that Festa faces is ours," Fernandez told the nation at a stop of his tour of the Plaza de Los Franciscanos. "Festa has hired gangs to campaign, there are people who are armed, one of my colleagues has broken his arm, I am complaining about everything that's going on. It is a little calmed down, it has like seven groups of stickers and painted, for that there is money in the municipality ", summarizes the precandidata, which also has its belvedere on the place where she is called to vote for Fernández-Fernández-Fernández.

Councilor Damián Contreras, the local referent of Sergio Mbada, is another candidate. "During these four years, there has been a lack of strong leadership within Peronism, the mayor and president of the Moreno justicialist party has generated rispideces and clashes with many sectors that are now being presented to this intern, they were officials of the steward and today they face it, "says.

Contreras, who is preparing for his seventh term as mayor (he is currently on leave) and who was running for mayor of Mbadismo in 2015, also has his tent on the downtown square. In addition, he directs the health operations and the sale of bottles to 300 pesos, the last entering a club in the city of Francisco Álvarez.

In neighborhoods like Villa Anita, you can see posters that do not come from Festa. In the street Güemes, on the rays of light, there is the propaganda of Walter Correa, leader of the tanners guild and national deputy. "The hour of the workers" and "Always with Cristina" are the legends of these posters. "No political sector contains our sector, that of the comrades who understand that we must fight and that we are the real opposition." The policy of the intendant was closing in, "he said, in dialogue with the nation his morenense bunker, Ateneo Néstor Kirchner.

Correa was elected councilor in 2013 and said that his turn was door to door: "We are focusing on single family houses, there are 123,000 houses in our district and we have already achieved more than 70%." He says his list does not contain "toads, toads or toads".

Near Festa have their questions for internal opponents. They prefer Fernandez, who is criticized for his visit to the Municipal Institute of Local Economic Development and for having tried a face-to-face meeting, and against Correa, who wonders if his local political ambitions are fueled by the proximity that give him Máximo Kirchner.

Festa responds to the proliferation of lists: "I encourage everyone [a participar]"I think the intern is healthy. And about his supposed interference in presenting lists without any real luck, he says that "it's basic arguments from those who know that it's hard to beat a steward".

A few meters from the downtown square, in the deliberative council, there are more candidates. Cintia González and José Luis Barreiro. "Festa did not take charge, he did not direct Moreno's Peronism, he never called for unity, I helped him to become mayor, but he took another path and there is a lack of management in the district, "said counselor González during a telephone conversation with
THE NATION while walking Cuartel V.

He also emphasizes that Festa encourages the presentation of other lists in order to divide the local Peronist vote. "It's true and it's a valid strategy, the lists that play seriously are those of Fernández, Correa, Festa and ours," he summarizes.

Barreiro, a municipal councilor for eight years, was launched a few days ago. "I militated the unit until seven days before the closing of the lists, we were in the same conditions as everyone else and we decided to participate," he said at this diary over the phone, in the middle of a meeting with merchants. "In Moreno, there is no political leadership, the mayor does not have this will," he said, adding that "those who believe themselves elected, as La Cámpora, will take a electoral surprise ".

The list of candidates does not stop there: the list of Ramón "Nene" Vera, of the district Encuentro in Action, is also officialized. In Moreno, according to the calculations of the various Peronist lists, the voting intention of the formula Alberto Fernández-Cristina Kirchner is between 50 and 60%. In the lowest part of the poll, a coexistence challenge is opened: the final list issued by the district OSP may end up being composed of minority councilors, provided that they reach a floor of 25 % of internal votes.