Who is Sergio Massa? From the twists and turns with Kirchnerism to a possible presidential candidacy

(CNN Spanish) — He tried to be president of Argentina in 2015 outside of Peronism, but now many believe that, within Peronism, he could be the best candidate for the presidential elections this year. He does not confirm or reject this possibility and says he is dedicated to his work as Minister of Economy to try to solve the country’s high inflation, of more than 100% year-on-year. That figure is, perhaps, his worst enemy to reach the Casa Rosada.

Sergio Massa is the third member of the current government coalition, the Frente de Todos, which came to power in 2019 with Alberto Fernández as president and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner as vice, of which he knew how to be, first, a trusted official and then his staunch opponent.

He is a lawyer, he is 51 years old and has two children with his wife, Malena Galmarini, current head of the state running water and sanitation company that operates in the city of Buenos Aires and its surroundings.

He began his path in politics in the Unión de Centro Democrático, UCeDé, a right-wing group led by Álvaro Alsogaray that, in the 1990s, during the presidency of Carlos Menem, would align with Peronism. Massa would do the same and in 1999 he would be elected provincial deputy. Some figures from the former UCeDé who were even part of the Menem government now support the candidacy of right-wing libertarian Javier Milei. But Massa remained within Peronism.

Step by Step

In 2002, with the arrival of the Peronist Eduardo Duhalde as interim president after the 2001 crisis, Massa would be appointed head of the National Social Security Administration (Anses), an organization that manages one of the main state budgets.

He remained in that position until 2007, throughout the entire presidency of Néstor Kirchner, despite the fact that in 2005, already in the ranks of Kirchnerism, he had been elected national deputy for the first time, but he resigned from that position to continue directing the Anses .

In 2007 he was elected mayor of Tigre, a party in the north of Greater Buenos Aires, but would remain there for less than 8 months. He asked for a leave of absence and in July 2008 he took over as chief of staff of the then president Cristina Kirchner, after the resignation of Alberto Fernández, who had held that position since the arrival of Néstor Kirchner to the presidency in 2003.

Massa would be head of the Cabinet for a little less than a year. In June 2009, he joined, in third place, the list of national deputies headed by former President Kirchner in the province of Buenos Aires. Massa was one of the so-called “testimonial” candidates, those who, despite being elected, had no intention of taking office but had the ability to attract votes, as happened in his case.

That list lost to the one led by businessman Francisco de Narváez, and a few days later Massa resigned as Chief of Staff and returned to the Tigre mayorship. In 2011, still under the umbrella of Kirchnerism, he would be re-elected as mayor with more than 70% of the votes.

Since then, the differences with Kirchnerism have deepened until, in the 2013 elections, he again competed for deputy, but this time for his own space, the Renewal Front, and he won the candidate of the then president, Martín Insaurralde.

His break with Kirchnerism seemed to have no turning back and resulted in a presidential candidacy in 2015 as an opponent. His candidacy ended up splitting the Peronist vote and Mauricio Macri would end up winning that presidential election in a ballot against the pro-government candidate, Daniel Scioli.

Massa’s return to Kirchnerism

“When back in 2013 they wanted to impose the ‘eternal Cristina’ on us, we had the courage to stop it. If she appears again, we are going to stop her again, ”said Massa, in the campaign, in 2017.

But two years later, in 2019, she returned to the ranks of Kirchnerism at the hands of Alberto Fernández, the candidate for the presidency that Fernández de Kirchner had chosen for the formula that she integrated.

He headed the list for national deputies for the province of Buenos Aires and ended up being the president of the lower house.

Although in the past he had stated that he was going to “sweep away the gnocchi from La Cámpora” – who according to him were “taking control of the State” – in this new stage one of his main allies would be one of the founders of that political group. kirchnerista: Máximo Kirchner, son of the new vice president, who was elected president of the pro-government bench in Deputies.

His last leap was a risky bet, but one that – if successful – could catapult him to the presidency: he was appointed Minister of the Economy in August 2022. The objective was to try to calm the political and economic crisis facing the government, with the peso devaluing and inflation growing after the departure of Martín Guzmán from that portfolio and the brief passage of Silvina Batakis.

In a single ministry Massa concentrated what until then had been three portfolios: Economy, Productive Development and Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, a merger that earned him the nickname “super minister” by the media.

He is in charge of various central issues in Argentina today: control of inflation and soybeans, the country’s main export, and the relationship with the International Monetary Fund. In practice, he seems to have stayed, along with the vice president, with the management of the government in the face of an increasingly opaque Alberto Fernández and sometimes far from the center of important decisions.

Now, who claimed that he was going to stop Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, shares with her government decisions and even public events pending a definition from her and Peronism on the strategy and candidacies for these elections.

She has already said that she will not be a candidate “for anything”, Fernández has already declined to compete for his re-election, but he is still unknown.