The Poliarquía consultancy published a table on its Twitter account showing that, in the provinces where the governor was also elected, Sergio Massa had a similar performance to Javier Milei: both had 23 percent. They are the averages of Catamarca, Santa Cruz, Entre Ríos, the City of Buenos Aires and the Province. This reading is the one that most alerted Massa’s team, because Milei had victories in provinces where Peronism governs, but the fate of the governor was already resolved, because the provincial elections had been brought forward. That political egoism played against the presidential candidate of Unión Por la Patria. The clearest examples are Tucumán and La Rioja, where Milei came out first and Massa second.
But there is one more factor that also smacks of conspiracy: the election of senators. In San Juan, for example, Sergio Uñac came first, meaning that today he would be securing two seats for the Senate, but in the presidential category Unión Por la Patria came second. Was there a vote for Milei-Uñac? The current governor is still upset because the government did not help contain José Luis Gioja, who presented him with a ballot in the province and won the internship. For the worse, the ruling party lost the province in the hands of Marcelo Orrego, from Juntos Por el Cambio.
Not to speak of treason, in the ruling party they are rehearsing an explanation for the result inside: they argue that the governors had the mandate to take care of Milei’s ballot so that he divided the vote for JxC, but apparently they would have gone too far, so in general they should avoid this. If Milei’s performance falls in October, this thesis could be verified.
Bill passes. If you zoom in on the province of Buenos Aires there are also cases to look at. In Mercedes, the territory of Eduardo “Wado” De Pedro, Massa’s campaign manager, there were dissimilar results. Juan Ustarroz, cousin of “Wado” and candidate for mayor, got 48%; Axel Kicillof had to settle for 33 points; “Wado” added 30 points, Máximo Kirchner 28 and Massa 17. A clear example of how the mayors take care of their ballot and then see how they help the rest. There doesn’t seem to have been much help here. In the massista bunker on Miter street they point out their comrades who are so unsupportive and hope to reverse this situation on October 27.
In Hurlingham something worse happened in the killing of inmates, the mayor “Juanchi” Zabaleta was for his re-election and La Cámpora put a ballot in the PASO led by Damián Selci, the same one who replaced him when he was summoned by Alberto Fernández for the Ministry of Development. Zabaleta lost and was out of competition. The following Monday they asked him if he was going to help in the general and he answered ironically: “Yes, how they helped me.”
There were also own mistakes. In Tigre, his small pay, Massa fought Julio Zamora’s candidacy in favor of his wife Malena Galmarini and ended up losing. Even Juan Grabois benefited from this internship and in that municipality he got more than 10%, when at the national level he got 5%. Not even in Quilmes, where La Cámpora governs, did it go so well.
what is coming The thought with the greatest consensus in Unión Por la Patria is that we must “endure” the coming weeks. The performance of the Minister of Economy in the primary elections and the impressive victory of Milei force for these hours to prepare a contingency plan that must be sustained after the abrupt devaluation of the official dollar and the skyrocketing of the parallel, which was listed in the city of Buenos Aires for over $780 at press time. Massa must overcome the exchange rate tension of the coming weeks to just start thinking about the best strategy to try to reach a ballot.
