Gerardo Morales placeholder image it took less than 24 hours to show his cards. On Friday afternoon they confirmed him as the president of the UCR and by the end of the next day he had already sent two darts that returned to shake an inmate who had physical confrontations, insults in various tunes and block breaks. On Saturday morning the governor of Jujuy met with Mauricio Macri, in what was his first official act as a new party authority, and later he praised his Cordovan pair, Juan Schiaretti, and asked to add him to a possible alliance. In other words, he sent grenades for the radicals of the Federal Capital and Córdoba, two key bastions for his plan, which was more exposed than ever. Nobody has to be confused: the presidency that Morales is looking for is not the one in his space, but the one on Balcarce Street. And for that, he warned, he is willing to add almost anyone, even at the cost of the opinions of his own space. On a UCR that sealed an alliance tied with wires, Morales wants to be the new boss.
Advanced. You have to understand that Morales It is not the typical radical. He is the first of his own to govern the province, since he came to power in 2015 and broke the hegemony that justicialism had there since the return of democracy. But that was not the only novelty of that election, but the fact that he won it, precisely, weaving alliances with another part of Peronism. The thing is that the Jujuy -although he was born in Salta, he moved very young to the neighboring town and says he feels like one of those payments- was the only one of the UCR that was authorized and that he won, that year of the agreement in Gualeguaychú with Cambiemos, to compete under an alliance with Sergio Massa. In fact, his lieutenant governor, from that period and the current one as well, is Carlos Haquim, Historical strongman of the Renovador Front in Jujuy. If some forecasts come true, 2023 is not going to be the first time Morales has made flashy deals to win a vote. But not only that distinguishes the governor: doors into the space that Leandro Alem founded still receives bills for having been a close ally of Alberto Fernandez when he began his administration, and they remember that his wife (see box) was appointed to the YPF board during the mandate of the Frente de Todos. “Gerardo is the most Peronist of all the radicals,” says one who does not have much sympathy for him, and echoes a Chicana that is heard a lot within the UCR.
It must also be understood that the moment of radicalism is not the usual one, or at least it is not the one that was the norm since the government of Fernando de la Rúa exploded into the air, 20 years ago, days after Morales left his post as Minister of Social Development of the Alliance to win his first seat as senator for Jujuy. The good choices of Facundo Manes in Buenos Aires, Rodrigo de Loredo in Córdoba, Carolina Losada in Santa Fe, and the performance of the party in the provinces it governs – in addition to Morales, are Rodolfo Suárez in Mendoza and Gustavo Valdés, that this year he was reelected with 76% of the votes in Corrientes- plus the appearance of figures like Martín Tetaz excited everyone. Or, as they say in the UCR indoors, they were “revived”, an uproar that was noticed during the internship to elect the new party authorities, at which point Morales almost caught up with Martín Lousteau – his number enemy until days ago. one, now, miracles of the thread through, his vice-president in the UCR-.
In fact, among all the factions that inhabit the elbows in space, it could be said that there is only one coincidence: from here on in. Together for ChangeUnlike what happened in the Macri government, it will have to consider radicalism as an essential partner. Or, as Morales would say, they are going to have to go after him in a presidential formula that he plans to lead.
2023. Those who have confidence with Morales is called “Cabezón”. They do not do it for a question of size but because, they say, when you put something in your brain it is impossible to remove it. And now the governor is pointing to Rivadavia’s chair.
To achieve that goal, he first had to surf the rebellion of Lousteau and the deputy Emiliano Yacobitti. They, plus 11 other deputies, left the radical bloc on Monday the 6th. That traumatic episode – it was that morning when Morales almost spun with the curled senator, at the headquarters of the UCR – was only held back on Friday the 17th in the election of the new party authorities, but it was not easy and it is not a closed chapter at all. In the middle there were permanent lobbying by Enrique Nosiglia, the political godfather of the rebels -who was not so in agreement with the rupture but later had to adjust to what his dolphins did-, to achieve a list of unity that many predict may not resist to 2023. The protagonist of The last cover of NOTICIAS once again demonstrated its power: despite controlling, at most, 30 of the 96 delegates who selected the new authorities of radicalism, Nosiglia managed to retain six positions of the National Committee for his group, out of a total of 15. Now, they say, the “Coti” is happy. Now you can return to the shadows and walk away from a public exhibition that you never liked.
A colored fact about the radical white smoke: the one who was very active, playing in tandem with the group Lousteau, Yacobitti and Nosiglia, it was Daniel Angelici, that he even hosted a meeting between the rebels and Morales’ envoys. This attracted attention for two reasons. The first is that the “Tano” had been confronted with Nosiglia, after the “Coti” will support Ameal andn the Boca elections in which he lost angelicism in 2019, and the second is the presence of the former president xeneize himself. Angelici, after the Macri government where he had a lot of weight, remained a questioned figure within radicalism and had moved away from party life. Despite that, he managed to sneak into the National Committee as the secretary for CABA, although his enemies in the UCR say they are going to challenge him: there is talk of a legal twist that specifies that someone who “has interests” with the game. Open end.
Future. Morales, now, will have to steer the return of those who went to the block of the UCR in Deputies. The tentative date is between February and March for that to happen, although the new president got off to a bad start: the visit to Macri and the pampering of Schiaretti agitated the radicals of Capital and Córdoba, provinces from which the rebel legislators came out.
2022 will also be a year in which he will show his game: Morales plans to travel across the country to install his candidacy, and to rush Larreta to define his. The mayor of Buenos Aires chose as a strategy to return “to management” in the City and leave 2023 for later, but the Jujuy wants to force him to get into the ring, and in fact he has already warned that Patricia Bullrich (see box) would be a running mate hers. The “Cabezón” goes for everything.
