 Displacing José Alonso in July 1970, Rucci was elected general secretary of the CGT, by 544 delegates on 618 present, during the Normalization Congress, which led to deepened differences between the CGT-Azopardo and the CGTA, which claimed a more radical leftist stance opposed to the military junta.Among those 618 delegates present at the Congress, 544 voted for him; those who voted against were the Vandoristas, on the right-wing (Vandor had spoken in favour of a "Peronism without Perón", supporting the "participationist" tendency among the workers' movement), and the "Cordobeses", who were in favour of armed struggle against the junta 

As the new general secretary of the CGT (hereafter CGT-Azopardo), Rucci launched the slogan "Nothing Without Perón" ("Nada sin Perón") and, after initial optimism, opposed President Alejandro Lanusse's National Accords ("Gran Acuerdo Nacional") of July 1971, which outlined a road map to the return to democratic rule, but which preserved the military's vetting power over policy.This helped unite Peronist forces towards the goal of Perón's return from exile.