Peron set to return for recovery talks

Press, 19 May 1984, Page 11

Peron set to return for recovery talks

NZPA-Reuter Buenos Aires Maria Estela Martinez de Peron, a former President of Argentina and heiress of the Peronist political lengend, will return home tomorrow, temporarily ending her self-imposed exile in Spain. The secretive and nervous 53-year-old Opposition leader is going back at the invitation of President Raui Alfonsin, who wants to find common ground with the strong Peronist Opposition party to work out an economic recovery programme. The fragmented Peronist Party, which has floundered since the death in 1974 of its founder, former President Juan Domingo Peron, is also waiting expectantly for the return of Maria Peron, its last link to the charismatic former leader. “We need Senora Peron to come, guide, orient and lead the party and to take charge of actions that the

Peronist rank and file are demanding,” a Peronist politician, Carlos Grosso, said. “If this does not occur, her role will be washed out.”

The plans and thoughts of

Peron’s widow are a mystery to even the closest of her followers, Peronist sources say. She studiously avoids the press, politicians and advisers. Critics question the value of any contribution by Mrs Peron to the talks with the President, saying she has little grasp of the complexities of fighting Argentiana’s 522 per cent annual inflation rate or rescheduling its $67.2 billion foreign debt.

The President, however, has actively sought Mrs Peron’s participation in the talks, saying he wanted “one

interlocutor” instead of dealing with various Peronist leaders, all competing to make a name for themselves. The Peronist party has been in disarray since its crushing defeat in the General Elections last October. The poll was the Peronists’ first defeat in free elections since they emerged in 1945. It was also the first General Election since the death of Juan Peron, who was President three times. Many Peronist leaders are now waiting for Mrs Peron finally to show effective signs of leadership or step aside. Others have called for party reorganisation without her.

A Peronist Congressman, Julio Barbaro, said she represented Peronist “folklore,” nostalgia but not substance, and the party must recognise its need for a new dynamic leadership or die. Radicals have accused the Peronists of savagely sniping at Government policies and the Peronists have charged the President with pushing a policy of confrontation and attacking their interests.