While the candidates who were out of the race were being defined for the runoff, Juan Schiaretti It was more than 12 thousand kilometers away. The Cordoban governor was on tour through Saudi Arabia, first, and then through France and Spain, with a return date for November 6. “There is no rush to return,” they joked around him, knowing that, when he set foot on Argentine soil, he would submit to the pull of J.avier Milei and Sergio Massa so that the majority of their voters turn towards Freedom Advances or Union for the Homeland. The fact is that, with 6.79% of the votes, he became a relevant referee of the second round.
His position is defined: he will remain neutral. “No need,” they say in their team. But any nod from the governor towards one side or the other can influence the second most important district in the country in terms of voter turnout. “We have to take care of the votes, ‘Gringo’,” one of his top consultants suggested. And he completed: “We get votes from all over the country, not just from Córdoba. “There is fertile ground to work on.” The challenge has just begun.
Postures.
In the absence of Schiaretti’s opinion, there are demonstrations of all kinds. The deputies of the Federal Interblock Natalia De La Sota, daughter of the former governor, and Alejandro “Topo” Rodríguez announced that they will vote for Massa. “The ideas of LLA do not represent me,” wrote the heir of the historic Córdoba leader.
The adhesions to Massa began to add up and, therefore, from the old continent, Schiaretti put a stop to the hemorrhage of his officials: “Once again I want to make public my categorical rejection of the alleged impeachment trial of the Supreme Court promoted by the Kirchnerist government of Minister Sergio Massa“, the governor wrote on Twitter. The message surprised even the Supreme Court, because nothing special had happened to make that tweet. He just wanted to put a stop to it.
On the other side, there were also signs. A Schiaretti minister criticized the official candidate. “The productive heart of our province continues to be attacked. And given this, it is difficult to vote for someone who has punished production for years and now, without fuel, paralyzes it,” the head of the Agriculture Ministry, Sergio Busso, wrote on Twitter.
According to an Opinaia survey among Schiaretti voters, there are two encouraging facts for Milei: Massa’s negative image is ostensibly higher than that of the libertarian candidate and, furthermore,s, a large majority of those consulted warn that “they are sure to vote” or that “they could vote” for La Libertad Avanza. That is to say, even without a definition of Schiaretti, there is a greater predisposition of his voters to turn their backs on the Minister of Economy.
Unlike the rest of those who fell in the generals, for Schiaretti it was a worthy defeat. To crown that, the governor, who hands over his duties in December, must establish himself as a prominent national opponent. From Massa or Milei. “From the plain we must build a center space, the front of fronts that he insists on,” they say at his small table after ruling out that he could be an official of another government. “We must create a central space that ends the divisions in Argentina with a part of the PRO, radicalism, non-K Peronism, the Civic Coalition and socialism,” they complete.
At 74 years old, Schiaretti believes that it can become a fundamental piece of the coming policy. Of course, facing the next President. That is why he will be careful not to give signals before the runoff. Massa and Milei want to convince him otherwise.
