Néstor Grindetti had planned to retire in December 2022. He had already achieved his personal desire to be mayor of Lanús and was planning to step aside to let Diego Kravetz, the current chief of staff of the municipality and candidate of Juntos Por el Cambio, grow up in these elections. But there were imponderables that changed his plans.
First, he wanted to accompany Fabian Doman in the elections of the Independiente de Avellaneda club. Everything was going well until the club’s crisis ejected the television host through the air and Grindetti had to take over. In parallel, the presidential candidacies of Together for Change and Patricia Bullrich He decided to internalize against Horacio Rodríguez Larreta in all the categories he could, still doubting the possibility of winning. Already closer to the deadline for the presentation of the candidacies, he decided to launch Grindetti as his candidate for governor of Buenos Aires against Diego Santilli.
In other words, the man went from being almost retired to presiding over the club of his loves and having a chance to be the next governor of the province of Buenos Aires. If he had planned it, he wouldn’t get it.
Grindetti’s candidacy has a circular story behind it: during the pandemic, diego kravetz met with Diego Santilli in the municipality of Lanús to discuss security issues. At that time, “El Colo” was the Minister of Security of the City of Buenos Aires and they were organizing collaborations between both districts.
Before leaving, already on the municipal stairs, Kravetz told him: “You have to be the candidate for deputy and from there project yourself for the governorship.” Santilli liked the idea and began working for himself, believing he would have Grindetti’s support. After all, the idea had come from his territory. Three years later, Kravetz’s political boss would steal his sleep. For Santilli it was all loss, almost on par with Horacio Rodriguez Larreta.
One more curiosity: just as Jorge Macri At that time he had harshly criticized Santilli’s “garrochazo” from the City to the Province, a territory in which the former president’s cousin was a reference, today he stars in his own leap in the opposite direction, from the Province to the City. He is about to become the head of the Buenos Aires Government and both Larreta and Santilli will be left with little room for action. In any case, the forms are not lost, and both have already announced their support for Bullrich and Grindetti.
Liberalism
Carolina Piparo, the other surprise of the Buenos Aires elections, became a candidate almost by discarding. It was after she got off Guillermo Britos, the mayor of Chivilcoy, given the number of provincial defeats that Milei had been accumulating, and after the rejection of other candidates such as Mauricio D’Alessandro. Píparo accepted the challenge after abandoning José Luis Espert, who had been his running mate in 2021 on the list of national deputies from the economist’s party, Avanza Libertad.
One of the reasons for break with espert It was because of “incompatible political visions”, but behind that euphemism was Espert’s negotiation with Together for Change to join the space. Píparo did not want to be an ally with Rodríguez Larreta and decided to close ranks with Milei, and after all, she was luckier than her former benchmate.
In terms of political strength, Píparo came third, but as an individual candidate she was the second most voted, so her floor is higher than that of Grindetti. The downside to her is that she has few places to go for votes. Anyway, Milei already said that she will put all her efforts to continue propping up Píparo in the Conurbano.
A particularity about piparo What emerges from the different focus groups run by Juntos Por el Cambio and Unión por la Patria is that they associate her only with the tragedy she experienced in 2010, when she was shot in the face in the middle of a bank leak. Nine months pregnant, she had to give birth to her son, who only lived for a week. Those surveyed only remember her for that painful episode. Even, some do not even know that she is a deputy. The most skeptical responses even speculate that she used her drama to get involved in politics.
Both Grindetti and Píparo had the advantage of having a strong presidential candidatewhich left them in a good position for the general elections, because now, even if they lose, they could still build an interesting bloc of deputies and senators in the Buenos Aires legislature.
If Píparo loses, he will continue to keep his band in the Chamber of Deputies. And if Grindetti is also defeated, he will have to resolve his situation at Independiente and he will finally be able to realize his old dream of retiring and dedicating himself to traveling the world. Although today the expectations are different.
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