Peronist

There is a widespread belief in the country that Pope Francis was a Peronist - something he denied in a book in 2023, while adding: "If we had a Peronist conception of politics, what would be wrong with that?"

Under the previous left-wing Peronist government, Argentina enjoyed close relations with Cuba, backing the end of the economic embargo, which the US imposed in the 1960s when Cuba adopted communism.

Jorge D’Onofrio, who is transport minister in the province's left-wing Peronist administration, said in a radio interview that if it were a nation in its own right, it would have the "biggest GDP in Latin America".

The province's governor is Axel Kicillof, an economist who has close ties to the Peronist faction led by ex-President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

Speaking at a news conference, government spokesperson Manuel Adorni blamed previous left-leaning Peronist governments for the current troubles.