Patricia Bullrich leaves La Patonetathe motorhome in which she travels around the country, on the pedestrian street of Santa Fe. The governor-elect is waiting for her there Maximiliano Pullaro and all their militancy to greet her and take photos. The candidate for president of Together for Change thanks and greets with a soft voice, hoarse from the effort of the campaign. Emboldened, she says: “In my government, the officials are going to come from the provinces. It is the only way for there to be federal representation.” It is the way to repay the support that each of the radical leaders, winners in their local elections, are giving.
Only in September, Bullrich was the protagonist of three Together for Change celebrations. The former president of the PRO celebrated hand in hand with the radicals: she started in Santa Fe, where Pullaro devastated Peronism; She continued through Chaco, where Leandro Zdero He won the first round against Jorge Capitanich and took the province from him after 16 years of Justicialist hegemony. Finally, “Pato” accompanied Alfredo Cornejo, the UCR senator who won the governorship of Mendoza for the second time.
Less than a month before the general elections, while Sergio Massa relies on multiple advertisements to enter the runoff and Javier Milei moderates his speech so as not to scare those who established him as the candidate with the most votes in the primaries, Bullrich found a way to distinguish himself in radical victories. If on October 22 he adds the necessary points to go to the second round it will be, in large part, because of the elected governors who held his hand up during his national tour.
Advanced.
The first objective of the UCR in 2023 failed. The intention of the top leaders of the centenary party was to have their own candidate for president. They tried Gerardo Morales and Facundo Manes, but the internal PRO was leaving them aside. Finally, the radicals had to settle for being companions of the two yellow candidates. For now, the one who survives the electoral battles is Luis Petri, Bullrich’s running mate.
But the provincial elections gave a new boost to the radicals. From December, when the mandates are renewed, they will have five governors of their own. In addition to Pullaro, Zdero and Cornejo there will be Carlos Sadir, who will replace his friend Morales in Jujuy, and Gustavo Valdés, who has been governing Corrientes since 2017 and renewed his mandate in 2021.
In his program on Net TV and Radio Perfil, Jorge Fontevecchia gave an acronym to the consolidation of the centenary party: “ERA”. “Instead of La Libertad Avanza, it would be El Radicalismo Avanza, with the question of whether it is Together for Change or rather the UCR that is capitalizing on the triumphs”held.
The UCR game is two sides. Today, they rallied behind Bullrich without fissures and put all their local units to work to win the national election. If that happens, the centenary party will be in optimal conditions to claim an important portion of the Cabinet. But they are also preparing for the least desired possibility: that the Together for Change candidate does not enter the runoff. There will come a political restructuring and they plan to put their foot down on the armed opposition. The objective: to stop being the caboose of the PRO, the despicable place they have occupied since the Gualeguaychú convention of 2015.
Once again, the leadership of radicalism dreams of capturing growth with a national candidate. “There is time to work. But with the management of the coming years we will be in a position to impose our leaders,” rejoices a UCR point guard. In any case, each elected governor works on the challenges posed by his own territory. In fact, they look with distrust at what may happen in the October elections: if La Libertad Avanza wins, they believe they will have to retreat to their provinces. For this reason, the same advisor reveals a certain amount of concern: “We are going to have to go through that winter. Imagine that the relationship with Milei is not going to be easy if he is president.” A clash of planets between a century-old party and an outsider eager to confront traditional politics.
In the midst of the hubbub, there were some calls for attention in radicalism. Like the one that Cornejo did to Morales and Valdés, after the governors of Jujuy and Corrientes appeared at an official event by Sergio Massa and became entangled in the Unión por la Patria campaign. “Radicalism must remain united with the PRO in Together for Change under any scenario,” asked the man from Mendoza. And he completed: “I understand that Massa uses those photos, but we don’t have to lend them.” He was not the only leader who protested this situation.
Short circuits.
Quick on reflexes, Massa squeezed the image of the governors of the Norte Grande, where the two leaders of radicalism were, to make noise within Together for Change. “I ask permission from the governors who are not part of our political force, but I want to leave a commitment,” the Minister of Economy and candidate of the ruling party surprised them. Morales and Valdés, sitting among the other PJ leaders, listened without the possibility of responding. “If on December 10 it is my turn to start presiding over Argentina, let no one be surprised that there are people from other political forces making up our government. “I am going to call for a government of national unity,” said Massa. in full ceremony. And he concluded: “I am not afraid to share with those who think differently, because we are all Argentina.” The internal damage had already been done.
Mauricio Macri He reacted to the act of the Minister of Economy with the radicals. “Be careful and keep your distance from Massa,” he asked them. the former president publicly, in an interview on TN. And he completed: “Sergio has a great ability for evil.”
He joined the crossroads with the radicals Javier Milei. “They said that we had an agreement with Massa, but it is them”, crossed them on Radio Continental. And he completed: “Morales and Valdés are two governors of Together for Change joining Massa. They propose to go with Massa. What are we talking about?”.
The La Libertad Avanza candidate also predicted that if Bullrich comes third in the general elections, it will be the end of Together for Change. “There is going to be a breakdown of the political system as it exists today and it would no longer exist. In fact, it no longer exists,” he provoked them.
At the center of the scene for the provincial victories, the UCR knows that they will be the target of much criticism. And they have already assumed that the leader who bears one of the most emblematic surnames is playing against them. Ricardo Alfonsín, ambassador to Spain, once again criticized the space. This time, on Twitter: “Only those who have no idea what the party is can deny that UxP’s proposals are much closer to the ideas of radicalism than those of JxC,” he wrote. And then he added: “That is why in this election we must support Massa’s candidacy.” Criticism from the militancy did not wait.
Radical victories are today Bullrich’s hope to reverse the sensation left by Together for Change in PASO. “Let’s not give national value to the provincial elections, but let’s take advantage of them to show the country that we are the real changenot blindly as others offer,” Cornejo analyzed before the candidate’s campaign team.
That is the message that has been tried to be replicated since the consecutive victories in September: Together for Change has ten governors and important interblocks in Congress. Now Bullrich will be in charge of convincing the electorate that it is the only space with the necessary political power to produce the transformations that are needed.
It is in this context that radicalism regained its vocation for prominence. The committees study all the possibilities that may arise after the national elections, but They trust that it is the opportunity to polish a game that shone a century ago and that, for many decades, has been appearing opaque.
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