Justicialist Party

The Justicialist Party (Spanish: Partido Justicialista, IPA: [paɾˈtiðo xustisjaˈlista]; abbr. PJ) is a major political party in Argentina, and the largest branch within Peronism.[19]

Justicialist Party

Partido Justicialista
AbbreviationPJ
PresidentJosé Luis Gioja
Vice-PresidentDaniel Scioli
Senate leaderJosé Mayans (FdT)
Chamber leaderMáximo Kirchner (FdT)
FounderJuan Perón
Founded21 November 1946 (1946-11-21)
Merger ofLabour Party
UCR Board Renewal
Independent Party[1]
Headquarters130 Matheu Street
Buenos Aires
Student wingPeronist Universitarian Youth
Youth wingPeronist Youth
Membership (2012)3,626,728[2]
IdeologyPeronism[3][4][5]
Factions:
Syncretism[6][7]
Kirchnerism (majority)[8][9]
Menemism (minority)[10][11]
Political positionCentre-left (Kirchnerists)
Centre-right (Menemists)[12]
Self proclaimed:
Third Position[13][14][15]
National affiliationFrente de Todos[16]
Continental affiliationChristian Democrat Organization of America[17]
COPPPAL [18]
Colors  Light blue   White
Anthem"Peronist March"
Seats in the Senate
36 / 72
Seats in the Chamber of Deputies
91 / 257
Governors
11 / 24
Website
www.pj.org.ar

Current president Alberto Fernández belongs to the Justicialist Party, as well as former presidents Juan Domingo Perón, Héctor Cámpora, Raúl Alberto Lastiri, Isabel Perón, Carlos Menem, Ramón Puerta, Adolfo Rodríguez Saá, Eduardo Camaño, Eduardo Duhalde, Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Justicialists have been the largest party in Congress almost consistently throughout the period from 1987 onward.

The Justicialist Party is the largest party in Congress; however, this does not reflect the divisions within the party over the role of Kirchnerism, the left-wing populist faction of the party, which is opposed by the dissident Peronists - the right-wing conservative faction of the party - who run in different election lists.

History

The Justicialist Party was founded in 1947 by Juan and Evita Perón, and superseded the Labour Party on which Perón had been elected a year earlier. After the enactment of women's suffrage, the Female Peronist Party, led by the First Lady, was also established. All Peronist entities were banned from elections after 1955, when the Revolución Libertadora overthrew Perón, and civilian governments' attempt to lift Peronism's ban from legislative and local elections in 1962 and 1965 resulted in military coups.[20]

Basing itself on the policies espoused by Perón as Argentine president, the party's platform has from its inception centered on populism, and its most consistent base of support has historically been the General Confederation of Labor, Argentina's largest trade union. Perón ordered the mass nationalization of public services, strategic industries, and the critical farm export sector; enacted progressive labor laws and social reforms; and accelerated public works investment.[20]

His tenure also favored technical schools, harassed university staff, and promoted urbanization as it raised taxes on the agrarian sector. Those trends earned Peronism the loyalty of much of the working and lower classes but helped alienate the upper and middle classes of society. Censorship and repression intensified, and following his loss of support from the influential Argentine Catholic Church, Perón was ultimately and violently deposed in a 1955 coup.[20]

The alignment of groups as supporting or opposing Peronism has largely endured, but the policies of Peronism itself varied greatly over the subsequent decades, as did increasingly those put forth by its many competing figures. During Perón's exile, it became a big tent party united almost solely by its support for the aging leader's return. A series of violent incidents, as well as Perón's negotiations with both the military regime and diverse political factions, helped lead to his return to Argentina in 1973 and to his election in September that year.[21]

An impasse followed in which the party had a place both for leftist armed organizations such as Montoneros, and far-right factions such as José López Rega's Argentine Anti-Communist Alliance. Following Perón's death in 1974, however, the tenuous understanding disintegrated, and a wave of political violence ensued, ultimately resulting in the March 1976 coup. The Dirty War of the late 1970s, which cost hundreds of Peronists (among thousands more) their lives, solidified the party's populist outlook, particularly following the failure of conservative Economy Minister José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz's free trade and deregulatory policies after 1980.[21]

In the first democratic elections after the end of the dictatorship of the National Reorganization Process, in 1983, the Justicialist Party lost to the Radical Civic Union (UCR). Six years later, it returned to power with Carlos Menem, during whose term the Constitution was reformed to allow for presidential reelection. Menem (1989–1999) adopted neoliberal right-wing policies which changed the overall image of the party.[22]

The Justicialist Party was defeated by a coalition formed by the UCR and the centre-left FrePaSo (itself a left-wing offshoot of the PJ) in 1999, but regained political weight in the 2001 legislative elections, and was ultimately left in charge of managing the selection of an interim president after the economic collapse of December 2001. Justicialist Eduardo Duhalde, chosen by Congress, ruled during 2002 and part of 2003.[22]

The 2003 elections saw the constituency of the party split in three, as Carlos Menem, Néstor Kirchner (backed by Duhalde) and Adolfo Rodríguez Saá ran for the presidency leading different party coalitions. After Kirchner's victory, the party started to align behind his leadership, moving slightly to the left.[23][24]

The Justicialist Party effectively broke apart in the 2005 legislative elections when two factions ran for a Senate seat in Buenos Aires Province: Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (then the first lady) and Hilda González de Duhalde (wife of former president Duhalde). The campaign was particularly vicious. Kirchner's side allied with other minor forces and presented itself as a heterodox, left-leaning Front for Victory (FpV), while Duhalde's side stuck to older Peronist tradition. González de Duhalde's defeat to her opponent marked, according to many political analysts, the end to Duhalde's dominance over the province, and was followed by a steady defection of his supporters to the winner's side.

Néstor Kirchner proposed the entry of the party into the Socialist International in February 2008. His dominance of the party was undermined, however, by the 2008 Argentine government conflict with the agricultural sector, when a bill raising export taxes was introduced with presidential support. Subsequent growers' lockouts helped result in the defection of numerous Peronists from the FpV caucus, and further losses during the 2009 mid-term elections resulted in the loss of the FpV absolute majorities in both houses of Congress.[25]

In 2015, the PJ, with its presidential candidate Daniel Scioli, was defeated by the Cambiemos coalition. Mauricio Macri was inaugurated as President of Argentina, ending 12 years of Kirchnerism.

However, in the elections of 2019, the PJ joined the Frente de Todos, which won the presidential elections. The PJ returned to power, with Alberto Fernández as President of the nation.

Ideology

From its foundation, the Justicialist Party has been a Peronist catch-all party,[26] which focuses on the figure of Juan Perón and his wife, Eva, with economic populist ideals.

From the return of Perón in 1973 and under the leadership of Isabel Perón, the Justicialist Party was no longer characterized by anti-imperialist and revolutionary tones but by a strong focus on anticommunism (of which it became the main bulwark in South America) and the support of economic liberalism.

That line continued even after the military dictatorship of the National Reorganization Process, with the government of Carlos Menem until that of Eduardo Duhalde. The party moved from being a Third Position to a centre-right party, while rival Radical Civic Union acted as a centre-left party.

Since 2003, the party has undergone an abrupt revolution, with the rise of a faction known as the Front for Victory, led by Néstor Kirchner. The policies and ideology of that faction were dubbed Kirchnerism, a mix of socialism, left-wing nationalism and radicalism. Kirchner was elected President of Argentina and soon became a popular left-wing figure. The party shifted to left-wing populist, while Radical Civic Union joined with other anti-Kirchnerist centrist and center-right parties include Republican Proposal. After his death in 2010, his wife, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, took over the leadership of the Front for Victory, which continues to be a major faction of the Justicialist Party, with the chairman of the party being José Luis Gioja.

Leaders

The party is headed by a National Committee, whose president is the de facto leader of the party.

Electoral history

Presidential elections

Election year Candidate(s) First Round Second Round Result Note
# votes % vote # votes % vote
1951 Juan Perón 4,745,168 63.40 Y Elected as the Peronist Party
1958 no candidate (banished)
1963 no candidate (banished)
M-1973 Héctor Cámpora 5,907,464 49.56 Y Elected as the Justicialist Party part of the Justicialist Liberation Front
S-1973 Juan Perón 7,359,252 61.85 Y Elected part of the Justicialist Liberation Front
1983 Ítalo Lúder 5,944,402 40.16 N Defeated 247 Electoral College seats
1989 Carlos Menem 7,953,301 47.49 Y Elected 325 Electoral College seats, part of the Popular Justicialist Front
1995 Carlos Menem 8,687,319 49.94 Y Elected Joint-ticket (PJ—UCeDé)
1999 Eduardo Duhalde 7,254,417 38.27 N Defeated part of the Justicialist Coalition for Change
2003 Carlos Menem 4,740,907 24.45 null 0 N 2nd-R Forfeited Front for Loyalty, a faction of PJ
Néstor Kirchner 4,312,517 22.24 null 0 Y 2nd-R Unopposed Front for Victory, a faction of PJ
Adolfo Rodríguez Saá 2,735,829 14.11 N 1st-R Defeated Front of the Popular Movement, a faction of PJ
2007 Cristina Kirchner 8,651,066 45.29 Y Elected part of the Front for Victory Alliance
Alberto Rodríguez Saá 1,458,955 7.64 N Defeated part of the Justice, Union and Liberty Front Alliance
2011 Cristina Kirchner 11,865,055 54.11 Y Elected Front for Victory, a faction of PJ
2015 Daniel Scioli 9,338,449 37.08 12,198,441 48.60 N 2nd-R Defeated part of the Front for Victory Alliance
2019 Alberto Fernández 12,473,709 48.10 Y Elected part of the Everyone's Front Alliance

Chamber of Deputies

Election year votes % seats won Total seats Position Presidency Note
1948 64.1
109 / 158
Majority Juan Perón (PP) as the Peronist Party
1951 63.5
135 / 149
Majority Juan Perón (PP) as the Peronist Party
1954 4,977,586 62.96
161 / 173
Majority Juan Perón (PJ) as the Peronist Party
1958 null 0 0
0 / 187
Banned Pedro Eugenio Aramburu (de facto)
1960 null 0 0
0 / 192
Banned Arturo Frondizi (UCRI)
1962 1,592,446 17.53
23 / 192
Minority Arturo Frondizi (UCRI) as Unión Popular
1963
16 / 192
Minority José María Guido (UCRI) as Unión Popular and other pro-Justicialist
1965 2,833,528
(UP only)
29.6
(UP only)
52 / 192

(UP only)
Minority Arturo Umberto Illia (UCRP) as Unión Popular and other pro-Justicialist
1973 5,908,414 48.7
144 / 243
Majority Alejandro Agustín Lanusse (de facto) as Justicialist Party part of the Justicialist Liberation Front
1983 5,697,610 38.5
56 / 127
111 / 254
Minority Reynaldo Bignone (de facto)
1985 5,259,331 34.3
55 / 127
101 / 254
Minority Raúl Alfonsín (UCR)
1987 6,649,362 41.5
60 / 127
108 / 254
Minority Raúl Alfonsín (UCR)
1989 7,324,033 42.9
65 / 127
126 / 254
Minority Raúl Alfonsín (UCR) part of the Popular Justicialist Front
1991 6,288,222 40.2
62 / 127
116 / 257
Minority Carlos Menem (PJ)
1993 6,946,586 42.5
64 / 127
127 / 257
Minority Carlos Menem (PJ)
1995 7,294,828 43.0
68 / 127
131 / 257
Majority Carlos Menem (PJ)
1997 6,267,973 36.3
50 / 127
118 / 257
Minority Carlos Menem (PJ)
1999 5,986,674 32.3
51 / 127
101 / 257
Minority Carlos Menem (PJ)
2001 5,267,136 37.5
67 / 127
121 / 257
Minority Fernando de la Rúa (UCR—Alianza)
2003 5,511,420 35.1
62 / 127
129 / 257
Majority Eduardo Duhalde (PJ)
2005 6,883,925 40.5
80 / 128
140 / 257
Majority Néstor Kirchner (PJ-FPV)
2007 5,557,087 45.6
82 / 127
162 / 257
Majority Néstor Kirchner (PJ-FPV)
2009 5,941,184 30.3
44 / 127
110 / 257
Minority Cristina Kirchner (PJ-FPV)
2011 12,073,675 58.6
86 / 130
130 / 257
Majority Cristina Kirchner (PJ-FPV)
2013 12,702,809 55.4
47 / 127
133 / 257
Majority Cristina Kirchner (PJ-FPV)
2015 8,797,279 37.4
59 / 127
95 / 257
Minority Cristina Kirchner (PJ-FPV)
2017 9,518,813 39.0
58 / 127
110 / 257
Minority Mauricio Macri (PRO-Cambiemos) as Citizen's Unity
2019 11,359,508 45.5
64 / 127
122 / 257
Minority Mauricio Macri (PRO-Cambiemos)

Senate elections

Election year votes % seats won Total seats Position Presidency Note
2001
40 / 72
Majority Fernando de la Rúa (UCR-Alianza)
2003 1,852,456 40.7
18 / 24
41 / 72
Majority Eduardo Duhalde (PJ)
2005 3,572,361 45.1
18 / 24
45 / 72
Majority Néstor Kirchner (PJ-FPV)
2007 1,048,187 45.6
14 / 24
48 / 72
Majority Néstor Kirchner (PJ-FPV)
2009 756,695 30.3
8 / 24
34 / 72
Minority Cristina Kirchner (PJ-FPV)
2011 5,470,241 54.6
12 / 24
43 / 72
Majority Cristina Kirchner (PJ-FPV)
2013 1,608,846 32.1
14 / 24
40 / 72
Majority Cristina Kirchner (PJ-FPV)
2015 2,336,037 32.7
11 / 24
39 / 72
Majority Cristina Kirchner (PJ-FPV)
2017 3,785,518 32.7
9 / 24
36 / 72
Minority Mauricio Macri (PRO—Cambiemos)
2019
13 / 24
39 / 72
Majority Mauricio Macri (PRO—Cambiemos)

References

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  2. . 18 January 2013 https://web.archive.org/web/20130118051511/http://www.pjn.gov.ar/Publicaciones/00002/00058378.Pdf. Archived from the original on 18 January 2013. Retrieved 13 October 2017. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  3. Claeys, Gregory (2013). CQ Press (ed.). Encyclopedia of Modern Political Thought (set). p. 617. ISBN 9781506317588.
  4. Ameringer, Charles D. (1992). Greenwood (ed.). Political Parties of the Americas, 1980s to 1990s: Canada, Latin America, and the West Indies. p. 43. ISBN 9780313274183.
  5. "The persistence of Peronism". The Economist. October 15, 2015.
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  7. Weitz-Shapiro, Rebecca (2014). Cambridge University Press (ed.). Curbing Clientelism in Argentina. p. 19. ISBN 9781107073623.
  8. Jalalzai, Farida (2015). Routledge (ed.). Women Presidents of Latin America: Beyond Family Ties?. p. 27. ISBN 9781317668350.
  9. Agustín, Óscar G.; Briziarelli, Marco (2017). Springer (ed.). Podemos and the New Political Cycle: Left-Wing Populism and Anti-Establishment Politics. p. 195. ISBN 9783319634326.
  10. Gallego-Díaz, Soledad (October 19, 2011). "El peronista Duhalde intenta conservar una parcela de poder en Buenos Aires". El País.
  11. Silva, Eduardo; Rossi, Federico (2018). University of Pittsburgh Press (ed.). Reshaping the Political Arena in Latin America: From Resisting Neoliberalism to the Second Incorporation. ISBN 9780822983101.
  12. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Peronist
  13. Morrow, John A. (2012). Cambridge Scholars Publishing (ed.). Religion and Revolution: Spiritual and Political Islām in Ernesto Cardenal. p. 154. ISBN 9781443838337.
  14. Gunson, Phil; Thompson, Andrew; Chamberlain, Greg (2015). Routledge (ed.). The Dictionary of Contemporary Politics of South America. p. 223. ISBN 9781317271352.
  15. Kohut, David; Vilella, Olga (2016). Rowman & Littlefield (ed.). Historical Dictionary of the Dirty Wars. p. 291. ISBN 9781442276420.
  16. "Fernández acordó con Sergio Massa". Télam - Agencia Nacional de Noticias. 12 June 2019. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
  17. http://www.odca.cl/organizacion/partidos/
  18. "Países y Partidos Miembros de la COPPPAL – Copppal".
  19. "Partido Justicialista". Pj.org.ar. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
  20. Crassweller, Robert. Perón and the Enigmas of Argentina. W.W. Norton & Company, 1988.
  21. Poneman, Daniel. Argentina: Democracy on Trial. Paragon House, 1987.
  22. "Argentina's new president sworn in". News.bbc.co.uk. 13 October 2017. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
  23. "Argentina hopes for new beginning". News.bbc.co.uk. 26 May 2003. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
  24. "The return of populism". The Economist. 12 April 2006. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
  25. Clarin.com. "Tras la derrota, Kirchner renunció a la jefatura del PJ y dejó a Scioli". Clarin.com. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
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