Buenos Aires province Governor Axel Kicillof will be the next leader of the Peronist party provincial branch after agreeing to run as the unity candidate for the March 15 party elections.

Peronism, official party name Partido Justicialista (PJ), has been fraught with infighting since it lost to President Javier Milei in the 2023 elections. Kicillof?s ascendance seems to signal that the three sectors jockeying for power in the party have placed their differences aside for the moment and are willing to work together.

In addition to Kicillof, the the other sectors are represented by former Economy Minster and presidential candidate Sergio Massa and national deputy Máximo Kirchner. The latter is the son of former presidents Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and (late) Néstor Kirchner. CFK is currently in house arrest and is banned from running in elections.

Kicillof?s current term as governor will end in 2027. This means he will be in charge of the PJ in Buenos Aires province, a Peronist stronghold and Argentina’s largest electoral district, in a crucial year as the opposition attempts to return to the Casa Rosada in next year?s presidential elections.

Although he has not formally launched his candidacy yet, Kicillof is the strongest political figure the PJ currently has to run for president in 2027.

In 2025, he made several moves attempting to distance himself from Máximo Kirchner and present as a more independent Peronist leader.

Despite rejection from the Kirchners, Kicillof decided to split the provincial legislative elections from the national ones. Peronism had a landslide victory with 47% against almost 34% from Milei’s La Libertad Avanza (LLA).

The party, however, did not gain traction from the move in the national elections. LLA won with 40.6% and Peronism came in second with 33.7%, losing considerable representation in the national Congress, where the PJ used to have a majority of lawmakers until December.

Máximo Kirchner, who has president of the PJ between 2021-2025, will now be head of the party’s congress. According to Herald sister publication Ámbito, he had already been speaking with his allies about his will to let Kicillof run the party in late January.

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