On Wednesday the 25th, the UCR press conference, led by Gerardo Morales and Martín Lousteau, began at 4:21 p.m. At that same time, in a gym in San Isidro, Mauricio Macri was exercising on a stationary bike and watching the Champions League match between Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City and the Swiss club Young Boys on television. That is to say, his interest in the opinion that the radicals had about the breakup of Together for Change that the former president had just completed was reduced almost to contempt. “Macri is happy, he wanted to screw up the life of Together for Change,” Morales said in that conference while the aforementioned followed what Pep’s team was doing on TV.
Macri had been convinced for months that radicalism and a sector of Juntos would end up allying with Sergio Massa if there was a second round. He considered that there were too many communicating vessels between these sectors and the Minister of Economy to exercise true opposition. With that he justified his move to break up before them.
On Sunday night, a comment that reached him convinced him that he had to make serious progress in an alliance with Javier Milei. They told her that, in the VIP of the bunker, Emiliano Yacobitti, Lousteau and Morales and also Horacio Rodríguez Larreta and Elisa Carrió approached Patricia Bullrich and asked her not to be harsh with Massa. That suggestion was so poorly received by her that he decided to double down and attack the Government candidate. At that time of night, the atmosphere was one of absolute defeat and the terrible certainty hovered that everything they had built in the two decades of the PRO’s life had just been taken away by a newcomer like Milei, who until three years ago was a television panelist. The next day, Bullrich resumed the presidency of the PRO and began working with Macri on the alternatives to follow.
Scenes from the summit. On Tuesday night, the 24th, the meeting took place that made space creak. Macri invited Milei to her house on José C. Paz Street, in Acassuso, San Isidro district. The libertarian was accompanied by his sister Karina and his political advisors Guillermo Francos and Santiago Caputo. Patricia Bullrich was there with her vice candidate Luis Petri and also the elected deputy Cristian Ritondo and the former candidate for governor for the PRO, Diego Santilli. The meeting was planned in two stages. Macri, Bullrich and the Milei brothers had a first talk that was from 10:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. Then the other actors began to arrive.
There was no food, just some non-alcoholic drinks: water, soda and coffee. There were no assistants or secretaries. Juliana Awada was not there either, who took a few days in Villa La Angostura to rest in the family home they have in the Cumelén country, perhaps anticipating that hectic days were coming.
The host Macri opened the door to the first to arrive -Patricia and the Milei-, served drinks and received them in his large living room, where he usually entertains his friends and family, a space of more than 30 square meters decorated with paintings by the Uruguayan artist Guillermo García Cruz, two four-section armchairs and four individual armchairs. In the center, two black coffee tables, which simulate being one, with vases and art books on them, among which one by fashion designer Tom Ford stands out.
Everyone was summoned in the most absolute secrecy and no one knew who was going to participate in the meeting. Ritondo, Petri and Santilli were surprised to see Milei. The same thing happened to Francos and Caputo, the libertarian’s bishops, who did not know that they were entering Macri’s house. The former president looked at them all and measured their faces in surprise. He enjoyed the effect that he was causing in that hundredth of a second in which each one discovered the reason for the meeting: a pact was going to be sealed between both spaces.
The talk lasted until after 1 in the morning and its main focus was to bring positions closer together and “friend” Bullrich with Milei. During the campaign they went from throwing flowers to throwing low blows and accusations, like when the libertarian said that the PRO leader had planted bombs in kindergartens during her time as a Montonera, something that led to a criminal complaint about which Bullrich now promised give up in the next few days. At the meeting, she had the leading voice and they agreed that she would make a public gesture of support and that they would work together with the goal of beating Massa. The most important request that Bullrich made was that they “hide” the controversial candidates who could lead the discussion to unexpected topics such as the “renunciation of paternity” that Lilia Lemoine raised. Some of those present even got the impression that the one who was leading this adventure was Bullrich herself and that Macri was only fulfilling the role of matchmaker.
Macri and Milei established a relationship of mutual respect after the former president asked businessman Eduardo Eurnekian to provide him with a bridge to neutralize the libertarian’s attacks. Eurnekian put them in contact and then each meeting was managed by Alberto Benegas Lynch Jr. At first there were three video chats and a personal meeting, according to journalist Juan Luis González in “El Loco”, Milei’s unauthorized biography. In the last week, before the general elections, they spoke much more frequently and met again in person on Tuesday to reconcile with Bullrich.
The day after the meeting, the inspection teams from both political spaces were already organizing the logistics to face the ballot.
Internal. Everyone attending the meeting had a role, especially those chosen by Macri. Why were Cristian Ritondo and Diego Santilli invited? What was Petri doing? The vice presidential candidate was summoned because he was Bullrich’s running mate, but also because of his radical origins. Petri is a Julio Cobos man and represents a radicalism closer to Macri and Milei than to Massa. The presence of Ritondo and Santilli has a deeper meaning because they are Rodríguez Larreta’s traveling companions throughout the entire history of the PRO, especially Santilli, who accompanied him in his truncated presidential dream. Including them and not the Buenos Aires mayor is materializing an idea that Macri already had in his head: displacing Larreta from any possibility of growth within the PRO. The day the head of Government decided to call concurrent elections in the City of Buenos Aires to give Lousteau’s radicalism an opportunity to stay with the City, Macri crossed him forever. The PRO’s main refuge is the City and losing it would cause irreparable damage.
The day after the meeting, Larreta was upset with Santilli for having hidden the meeting from him. Far from apologizing, “El Colo” doubled down and replied that he also had many meetings that he did not tell him about. Old anger that comes to light when there is a crisis.
Macri’s move has two hypothetical scenarios in the former president’s head. On the one hand, if he wins, he will be part of Milei’s government with the possibility of including ministers from his environment. These days, names such as Guillermo Dietrich, Jorge Triaca, Germán Garavano and Andrés Ibarra were being considered, all former officials of his government who accompanied him closely during these four years of plain. Dietrich is a trusted friend; Garavano advised him pro bono with his judicial problems; Triaca works as a playmaker in the shadows and with Ibarra they share the ambition of returning to the presidency of Boca Juniors. Another former Macri official that Milei likes is Federico Sturzenegger. Nothing is finalized yet, but the libertarian wants Macri to help him “form a Government,” as they say in Spain. This Madrid idea of co-governing is also interesting to Bullrich, who would be willing to be part of Milei’s government, perhaps as Chief of Staff. Everything is under study.
In a scenario of defeat, Macri believes that he also has a chance of survival because he would continue to retain a place of leadership in a space opposed to Kirchnerism. Abroad, Macri is still considered the main opponent of Kirchnerism, and he enjoys giving lectures in other countries talking about his “battle against Kirchnerist populism.” Giving that place to the newcomer Milei is not in his plans. Much less being swallowed up by radicalism, which, according to him, is willing to get closer to Massa.
The Acassuso pact not only triggered the breakup of Together for Change but also generated the rejection of co-founders of the coalition such as Carrió, Larreta, Morales or Ernesto Sanz. Macrista references from the first hour, such as Marcos Peña and Jaime Durán Barba, also raised questions. The Ecuadorian consultant predicted that Macri “will end up leading a small Barrio Norte party.”
More splinters. The inmates also skyrocketed in La Libertad Avanza: the shipowner and elected provincial senator Carlos Kikuchi was threatened by the entry of a structure like the Macrista that surpasses them in number and management capacity and at this time he is quietly criticizing the decision to “mix with the caste”, when the leitmotiv that left Milei at the doors of the Presidency was to show himself as the candidate who came to end the old politics. The unionist Luis Barrionuevo, who supported the candidate and provided part of the oversight in the general election, also already warned that he was abandoning the libertarian’s presidential project. The reason is the arrival of Macri, with whom he ended up falling out during the former president’s government. Among the Buenos Aires deputies and senators of the libertarian, reproaches are also leveled at Milei for having joined Macri (see note page 30).
This storm, which was unleashed in the house of the former president and which accumulates scenes of betrayal in all political spaces, is part of the political reorganization that challenges the Argentine political class. Miguel Pichetto has a phrase for these moments: “Betrayal is only a defect if the traitor fails. A hero is a traitor who succeeded.”
After detonating the bomb, as reported at the beginning of this note, Macri went into unscrupulous mode and went to the gym to watch a soccer game while his radical partners and the PRO “doves” questioned him for having broken the space. For the week before the runoff – the climax of the campaign – he plans to disconnect again: from November 9 to 12 he will travel to Chile for a bridge tournament. Meanwhile, in Buenos Aires, everything will continue to burn.
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