Leaders and followers of the Justicialista Party (P.J.) of Salta during the government exchange (2007 to 2011)

Abstract

After three consecutive terms, Juan Carlos Romero leaves the government in 2007 and assumes Juan Manuel Urtubey, unexpected winner of that year’s elections in an electoral coalition outside the ranks of P.J. The ruptures and subsequent massive realignments of followers who, in addition, neglected the formal side of the party, constituted an unprecedented and difficult situation to the understanding between many voters and observers. Those bonds that seemed immutable in the twelve years of Romero’s government, and that challenged the vulnerability attributed to the power relations, finally proved themselves fragile. I propose to analyze the way in which is put into operation a way of understanding the ‘political making’ and the political growth that propitiates realignments in the replacement of government. I show that the later recomposition seemed to follow the same values, dependencies and coercions that had prevailed in the Romero years, allowing the bonds stabilize again around the new governor in a similar way. Throughout the work, I analyze situations of realignments that occurred simultaneously with the recognition of Urtubey as Peronist conductor and Romero’s descent of his status as provincial leader. I finish with the transformations in the parties, the electoral strategies and the interparty mobilities that allow the understanding that, despite the continuities, for the people in that universe those years constituted new political times.