Federal Peronism (Spanish:Peronismo Federal), also known asDissident Peronism (Spanish:Peronismo Disidente), is the faction or branch of either moderate, centrist or right-wingPeronism (a political movement inArgentina), that is currently identified mostly by its opposition toKirchnerism, theleft-wing faction of Peronism.^[12]

The term "Federal Peronism," as opposed to "metropolitan Peronism" (mainly fromGreater Buenos Aires), was informally used since the 1980s to identify the more traditional and conservative Peronists from theProvinces of Argentina, whosegovernors grew in number and influence during the administration of PresidentCarlos Menem. Federal Peronists are not an internal faction in the nationalJusticialist Party (PJ), and instead either control provincial PJ parties or form their own parties and alliances, including entering coalitions with the anti-Peronist right.^[13]

"Dissident Peronism" is more properly used to refer to the Peronist opposition to the administrations and party leadership of left-leaningNéstor Kirchner andCristina Fernández de Kirchner. The term gained currency since the2008 Argentine government conflict with the agricultural sector, when a number of party leaders, governors and legislators (mainly from the agroexporter provinces) withdrew their support of the national government.

Following thecrisis that precipitated the resignation ofPresidentFernando de la Rúa on December 21, 2001, the oppositionJusticialist Party won a majority in both houses of theArgentine Congress in theOctober 2001 mid-term elections. The first interim President of Argentina elected by Congress after de la Rúa's resignation,San Luis Province SenatorAdolfo Rodríguez Saá, had the support of a group of governors and legislators from the hinterland provinces, from where the informal designation ofFederal Peronism originated. He resigned a week later, however, after failing to gain support from other factions of Peronism, fromorganized labor, and other sectors of Argentine society. The former Governor ofBuenos Aires Province and runner-up in the1999 general election,Eduardo Duhalde was elected by the Congress as interim President of Argentina on January 2, 2002.

Eduardo Duhalde, who counted on the support of Buenos Aires Province Peronism and some labor union leaders, calledelections for April 2003, and persuaded the fractiousJusticialist Party to present candidates directly to the general elections, without party primaries.^[14] After attempting to endorse other candidates (Carlos Reutemann, who refused to run, andJosé Manuel de la Sota, who did badly at the polls), Duhalde threw his support behind the little-known Governor ofSanta Cruz Province,Néstor Kirchner. Federal Peronists, in turn, were represented in the elections by two factions, one headed by former PresidentCarlos Menem and Governor ofSalta ProvinceJosé Luis Romero, identified with the policies spoused by Menem's 1989-99 presidency, and the other by Adolfo Rodríguez Saá and his brother,Alberto Rodríguez Saá,^[15] in an alliance withRadical Civic Union lawmaker Melchor Posse. Menem and Kirchner emerged as therunoff candidates, but the former President withdrew on May 14 as he anticipated a landslide defeat (the polls favored Kirchner 70%–30%), and Kirchner became the president-elect.^[16]

The alliance between President Kirchner and Duhalde had been dissolved by the2005 mid-term elections. Kirchner and Duhalde fielded their respective wives (each an influential lawmaker in her own right),Cristina Fernández de Kirchner andHilda González de Duhalde, as leaders of theirparty lists inBuenos Aires Province (the nation's largest constituency). The landslide victory of the Kirchners' FpV consolidated their leadership role in the Justicialist Party,^[17] and this in turn forced Duhalde to break with the official Peronist body, the Justicialist Party, in whichKirchnerism had become the dominant force. He thus established Federal Peronism on November 4, 2005, and gathered a caucus of 25 Congressmen in its support.^[18]

They later backed Alberto Rodríguez Saá's conservative Peronist candidacy in the2007 presidential elections, where Mrs. Kirchner was elected to succeed her husband with 45% of the vote (twice that of the runner-up, and six times that of Rodríguez Saá).^[19]

Dissident Peronism was united by its opposition to Kirchner'sFront for Victory (FpV), which became the leading vehicle for left-wing Peronists and incorporated much of the official Peronist structure. Among the early leaders in Dissident Peronism also includedMisiones Province SenatorRamón Puerta, Buenos Aires Province CongressmanCarlos Ruckauf, and union leaderLuis Barrionuevo [es]. Barrionuevo, unlike most members of theCGT, was allied with Menem, who arguably remained the most prominent spokesman forneo-liberal policies in Argentina.

The2008 Argentine government conflict with the agricultural sector over a proposed rise in export tariffs led to a sharp drop in presidential approval ratings, and numerous FpV lawmakers from more agrarian provinces broke with the party. The defections, which included 16Lower House members and 4 Senators, thus resulted in the reemergence of Federal Peronism. The conflict also prompted Luis Barrionuevo, whose alliance with Menem had cost him support in the CGT, to organize a splinter trade union confederation, the "Blue and White CGT," to challenge the center-left wing leadership of Secretary GeneralHugo Moyano, albeit unsuccessfully.^[20] A dissident Peronist who as an ally of Menem had never joined the FpV, businessmanFrancisco de Narváez, in turn formed an alliance with the center-rightPRO in Buenos Aires Province and the city of Buenos Aires for the2009 elections.^[21]

The elections resulted in a setback for the governing, center-leftFront for Victory and its allies, which lost their absolute majorities in both houses of Congress.^[22] Former President Néstor Kirchner stood as head of the FpV party list in the important Buenos Aires Province. Kirchner's list was defeated, however, by thecenter-rightPRO/Federal Peronism list headed by de Narváez;^[23] the loss in Buenos Aires Province, though narrow, was significant as the province had helped maintain Kirchnerism as the dominant force in Argentine politics since 2003.^[22]

Federal Peronism emerged from the 2009 mid-term elections with 45 Congressmen and 10 Senators, becoming the fourth and third-largest caucus in each house, respectively.

The alliance began preparations for the2011 elections by agreeing to a primary election for April 3, thereby uniting behind a single candidate.^[24] Among the candidates running in the Federal Peronist primary were: former President Eduardo Duhalde; Senators Adolfo Rodríguez Saá, Juan Carlos Romero, andCarlos Reutemann; CongressmenFelipe Solá and Francisco de Narváez; and GovernorMario Das Neves.^[25] An alliance with PRO was also actively considered;^[26][27]

Buenos Aires MayorMauricio Macri expressed unwillingness to accept a running mate from outsidePRO ranks, but ultimately withdrew his bid for the presidency.^[28]

Trailing in the polls ahead of the 2011 elections,^[29][30] Federal Peronists remained divided between Duhalde'sPopular Front andAlberto Rodríguez Saá's Federal Commitment even after the national August primaries,^[31][32][33] with Rodríguez Saá attracting upscale voters, and Duhalde, older, mainly working-class voters.^[34] They finished third and fourth place in the October general election with 8% and 6% of the total vote, respectively.^[35][36]

GovernorJosé Manuel de la Sota ofCórdoba Province formally became a dissident Peronist in September 2012 by establishing a local Justicialist Party faction opposed to Kirchnerism.^[37]

Between 2017 and 2019, Federal Peronism sought to consolidate itself as a third force other than the ruling party andKirchnerism, bringing together several of its members in the Federal Alternative space, led by the Governor of Salta,Juan Manuel Urtubey, the Governor of Cordoba,Juan Schiaretti, the leader of the Renewal FrontSergio Massa, and the Senator for Río Negro,Miguel Ángel Pichetto. After several round trips, and the failure of negotiations between said space and the former Minister of Economy and presidential candidateRoberto Lavagna, Federal Alternative began to crack.

In June 2019, the main references joined other parties:Miguel Ángel Pichetto,^[38]Adolfo Rodríguez Saá^[39] andJuan Carlos Romero joinedJuntos por el Cambio;Sergio Massa allies joined theFrente de Todos^[40] andJuan Manuel Urtubey joinedFederal Consensus.^[41]Carlos Menem sat in theFrente de Todos in the Senate.

The Federal Peronist option was unable to present an alternative Peronist force to the dominating Kirchnerist one. The victory of the mainstream Peronist forces in the 2019 election resulted in the "dismantling of the Federal Peronism alternative."^[42][43] In 2019, the Peronist dissidents left the Justicialist Party to form theFederal Consensus, which dissolved itself in 2023 and was succeeded byHacemos por Nuestro País.

Federal Peronism covers various sectors of right-wing or centrist Peronism.^[44][45] It has been described to represent "moderate, centrist or right-wing Peronism".^[46] Federal Peronism lacks a coherent ideology and fails to stand out from theCambiemos coalition, particularly on economic grounds. Federal Peronism is overall more socially conservative than Kirchnerism while still following the Peronist tenets of economic nationalism and social justice.^[47] According to Pierre Ostiguy and Aaron Schneider, all Federal Peronists leaders are to the right of Kirchnerism.^[13] Some political scientists classify Federal Peronism as centre-right, while the Manifesto Research on Political Representation (MARPOR) classified it as centrist and almost perfectly aligned with the "absolute centre".^[48]

According to political scientist Pierre Ostiguy, Federal Peronism combines "popular cultural conservatism with developmentalist, pro-business policies", emphasizes anti-crime legislation, and opposes the dominance of Kirchnerism.^[49] Martín Retamozo and Mauricio Schuttenberg described Federal Peronism as "broadly characterized by its commitment to good relations with the Catholic Church and sectors of the local business community, and a rhetoric based on social justice."^[50]

The movement represents first and foremost the diverse interests of state-level Peronist activists and leaders, who stay in opposition to Kirchnerism. Electorally, the goal of Federal Peronism was to prevent voters disaffected with Kirchnerism from defecting to anti-Peronist parties and present itself as a "third-way" candidacy that would maintain the diverse support bases of the Peronist movement. In comparison to Kirchnerism, Federal Peronism puts an emphasis on more republican and less populist values, and focuses more on regionalist and decentralist causes.^[47] It seeks to represent "Peronism before Kirchnerism" and promotes Peronist features that the movement had before being "re-founded" by Kirchnerism,^[51] which restored Peronism to the left-wing orientation it had under Juan Perón.^[52]

Federal Peronists sought to present themselves as the third way between Kirchnerism and the anti-PeronistMacrism.Miguel Ángel Pichetto stated that the movement wanted to differentiate itself fromCitizen's Unity, condemning this Kirchnerist coalition for forging "alliances withTrotskyism" and "thinking that by breaking everything there is a possibility of returning to power", stating that Federal Peronists "are not that kind of the left". Federal Peronism was introduced as a "democratic, republican, and federal Peronism", and presented itself as anti-populist, portraying Kirchnerism as an authoritarian, centralized and populist force. A divisive point amongst Federal Peronists was the question of shared identity with Kirchnerist Peronism. Some Federal Peronists, such asSergio Massa and hisRenewal Front, postulated a need for building a broad Peronist front and reconciled themselves with Kirchnerists, while others such as Pichetto considered anti-Kirchnerism more important, forging alliances with anti-Peronist forces which were justified as "rationality".^[53]

Election year	Candidate(s)	Primaries		First Round		Second Round		Result	Party - Coalition
		# votes	% vote	# votes	% vote	# votes	% vote
2003	Carlos Menem			4,741,202	24.45			N Won in the first round, but he resigned for the second round	Front for Loyalty
	Adolfo Rodríguez Saá			2,736,091	14.11			N Defeated	Front of the Popular Movement
2007	Alberto Rodríguez Saá			1,458,955	7.64			N Defeated	Justice, Union and Liberty Front
	Jorge Sobisch			268,401	1.40			N Defeated	Movement of the United Provinces
2011	Eduardo Duhalde	2,595,996	12.10	1,285,830	5.86			N Defeated	Popular Front
	Alberto Rodríguez Saá	1,749,971	8.17	1,745,354	7.96			N Defeated	Federal Commitment
2015	Mauricio Macri	5,523,413	24.49	8,601,131	34.15	12,988,349	51.34	YWon	Cambiemos
	Sergio Massa	3,230,887	14.33	5,386,965	21.39			N Defeated	United for a New Alternative
	José Manuel de la Sota	1,408,518	6.25					N Defeated
	Adolfo Rodríguez Saá	472,341	2.09	412,577	1.64			N Defeated	Federal Commitment
2019	Mauricio Macri	8,121,689	31.80	10,811,345	40.28			N Defeated	Juntos por el Cambio
	Roberto Lavagna	2,081,315	8.15	1,649,315	6.14			N Defeated	Federal Consensus
2023	Sergio Massa	5,277,538	22.68	9,853,492	36.78	11,516,142	44.31	N Defeated	Union for the Homeland
	Juan Schiaretti	914,812	3.93	1,802,068	6.73			N Defeated	We Do for Our Country

Province	Election year	Candidate(s)	Result			Party - Coalition
			# votes	% vote	Winner
Córdoba	2023	Martín Llaryora	870,935	45.20	YWon	We Do for Córdoba
Misiones		Hugo Passalacqua	424,533	64.18	YWon	Front for the Renewal of Concord
Neuquén		Marcos Koopmann	137,965	34.40	N Defeated	Neuquén People's Movement
Salta		Gustavo Sáenz	337.621	47,51	YWon	Salta Identity Party
Santa Cruz		Claudio Vidal	54.831	33.31	YWon	Por Santa Cruz

• 2005 establishments in Argentina
• Centre-right ideologies
• Centrism
• Conservatism in Argentina
• Justicialist Party
• Liberal conservatism
• National conservatism
• Peronist political parties and alliances in Argentina
• Political parties in Argentina
• Political party factions in Argentina
• Political parties established in 2005

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