The surprise in the bunker Horacio Rodriguez Larreta It was absolute the day the lists closed. The strategy against “Wado” by Pedro and Daniel Scioli was very clear, but the news that Sergio Massa supplant the two candidates raised doubts: it is that beyond belonging to different political spaces, The historical friendship between the Buenos Aires head of government and the Minister of Economy is public. They knew that sooner or later, internal competitors would bring up the relationship.
After the initial stupor, Larreta tried to calm his campaign team. “Massa has been very attached to Kirchnerism for a long time. It does not change what was planned”, pointed out one of the shipowners.
Of course, as could be anticipated, the relationship between the two is one of the most frequently heard criticisms among the internal rivals of both leaders. For this reason, the head of government intensified the statements against the pre-candidate of Union for the Fatherland. The task is to exaggerate the differences so that no one gets confused.
But while Larreta and Massa play to refuse, Malena Galmarini does not have that need: “I am still a friend of Bárbara (the former head of the Buenos Aires government), Because if they decide to break up with their partner, it has nothing to do with my friendship,” he said.
Relationship.
The reactions were not the same. While Massa, without competition within him, friendship does not end up committing him, Larreta could lose voters. That is why each one chose a different path.
Massa’s wife gave him the bear hug. “We have been friends with Horacio for almost 30 years, although I haven’t seen him for a long time”he said in Modo Fontevecchia. And, as if to expose it even more, he completed: “I think there are things that he says and that he does not mean. She says them only to make a sector closer to Milei and Bullrich fall in love ”.
For his part, when Larreta was consulted about the relationship, he dribbled the question talking about politics: “Massa is Kirchnerism. It’s in a totally different project than mine. He is a minister of the Economy with a lot of power in the government of Alberto Fernández and Cristina Kirchner,” he said in recent days from the convent where José López had taken the bags of money, a place he chose to commemorate K corruption and launch a proposal package.
Then he added: “Massa is the re-election of inflation and it is the re-election of insecurity and of a government that has failed”. Finally he did make a personal reference. He did not deny it as a friend, but argued: “I have been in a relationship for years, but political life and its decisions separated us.”
The search to relate Larreta to the Minister of Economy is one of the favorite activities of the PRO hawks on social networks. is that the same Patricia Bullrich gave them basics: “Horacio and Gerardo Morales are Massa. They always pose the same thing. They are discussing a model that is the same one that Massa is carrying out now,” said the presidential candidate. And she completed: “They want a little change, to continue with inflation, to continue increasing public spending. Argentina needs a fundamental change”. The strategy will continue until STEP.
Other times.
The relationship between Larreta and Massa began to suffer in mid-2022, with the episode of the billboards in Recoleta, in the surroundings of Cristina Kirchner’s home. The fight between the head of government and Kirchnerism became so fierce that both interlocutors began to privately roll the version that they no longer spoke to each other. It was important for both of them to stay away.
In fact, close to Larreta they went one step further: they assured, at that time, that Part of the anger of the head of government had to do with the fact that some of the things he talked about with Massa appeared, mysteriously, published in the media.
“With Horacio we got along very well since we had no charges”, Massa told NEWS in 2021. He was wrong about something: “That will not change,” he promised then. But in politics nothing lasts forever.
The friendship of the two families even shaped their work activities. Fifteen years ago, Barbara Ten, renowned wedding planner, revealed to the newspaper Perfil that His first job in the organization of events was, nothing more and nothing less, than in the wedding of Massa and Galmarini. “I told her that I wanted to dedicate myself to this and Malena suggested that I start by helping her,” she recalled. And she completed: “I did not charge them because I took it as an opportunity to gain experience and make myself known, in addition to the friendship relationship.” Today, they continue with the bond. And they say it without inconvenience.
It is also an open secret that both couples shared trips. In the late ’90s, for example, the four of them went to Disney World in Orlando.
Although the relationship was always known, the protagonists boast that there are no photos together, except in some formal act. If they meet, they do so under the radar. A camera never hooked them on a trip they shared or in their private meetings, like the ones that used to take place in Pinamar, where they both vacation.
In Larreta’s bunker they believe that friendship does not condition their political activity. In fact, they bring out that Macri himself forged a relationship with Massa while he was President.
scenarios.
There is divided doctrine on the electoral conveniences. Close to Massa they assure that the chances of entering the ballot are serious, unlike the few hopes that the ruling party had some time ago. From that place, they debate about who would be the best rival, so that the Minister of Economy begins to confront whoever suits him.
The first analysis gives preference to Bullrich, because against the former Minister of Security, Massa could fish for moderate votes. That is to say, to the voters who do not feel comfortable with the extremism of the referent of the PRO.
But in the last hours another possibility arose: If they point to Larreta, they could go looking for Milei’s votes for the ballot. It is that the liberal points more ferociously at the Buenos Aires head of government than at Massa, who is in office and cannot tame the economy. “He is worse than a communist”, he usually defines it when asked.
With Massa, on the other hand, there are too many connections. So many, that they generate suspicions. There are not a few who consider that Milei is a product of the Minister of Economy, or at least of some of her friends from the red circle to undermine the electorate of Together for Change.
At the close of this edition, the flames of the debate on the closeness of the Minister of Economy and the candidate of La Libertad Avanza were lit. Juan Carlos Blumberg was the one who rubbed the stones and released the first sparks: “Massa is the one who financed Milei,” he declared. In fact, serious complaints appeared from militants who claimed to have been displaced by the libertarian owner Carlos Kikuchi in order to add Frente Renovador candidates to their lists. Massa’s ill-considered but effective strategy in action: the Economy Minister is everyone’s friend. Since they met, at the end of the ’90s when they worked in Ramón “Palito” Ortega’s campaign, Larreta and Massa’s relationship had to go through different crises due to their political activity. This year’s does not escape that logic. They already have experience in staying friendseven though they sometimes act like fierce rivals.
