Former Argentine President Cristina Kirchner criticized Buenos Aires Governor Axel Kicillof, calling his decision to split the provincial and legislative elections a "political mistake".
In an extensive analysis of Sunday's defeat, the former head of state recalled that when the split was announced, she warned it was a mistake.
"I said this publicly on April 14, when, faced with the Governor's decision to split the provincial election, as president of the Justicialist Party I instructed our political force in the Buenos Aires Legislature to withdraw the Electoral Concurrentcy Bill, which aimed for the people of Buenos Aires to vote only once TO NOT DIVIDE THE EFFORTS INTO TWO ELECTIONS SEPARATED BY JUST 49 DAYS," she stated.
Along these lines, Cristina Kirchner went on to elaborate: "Furthermore, in private (due to the nature of the proposal), I also maintained that advancing the elections in the Province of Buenos Aires was very risky, both for its electoral weight and symbolic value, and because if we lost it would have a devastating effect on Peronism at the national level, and if we won it would produce a 'runoff effect' that would allow all anti-Peronist votes to regroup for the October legislative elections."
"I did it from the heart and for a simple reason: I don't care about being right, I care about winning the elections, which I also personally told the Governor," she emphasized on her social networks.
To reinforce her argument, the former head of state cited other Peronist governors who won legislative elections, such as Sergio Ziliotto (La Pampa), Ricardo Quintela (La Rioja), Raúl Jalil (Catamarca), Osvaldo Jaldo (Tucumán), and Gildo Insfrán (Formosa).
"I'm not saying this with the benefit of hindsight, as 'experts and analysts' usually do."
