Macri won. George, the cousin, who will be the sole candidate of the PRO in the City of Buenos Aires. but who also celebrated was Mauritius. The former president, who was touring Tucumán, felt it as a victory against the leader who challenges him the most, Horacio Rodriguez Larreta.
In order to elegantly lower his candidate, Fernán Quirós, Larreta organized a novel election by polls. The result was as expected: the Buenos Aires Minister of Health had to step aside.
After settling that discussion, the Buenos Aires mayor seeks to decompress the pressure in the relationship with Macri, but he is not willing to give up more. The first photo together with the candidate to succeed him was taken on the morning of Wednesday, May 31: Larreta speaking and next to him Jorge Macri, but they were also Graciela Ocaña, Roberto García Moritán and Martín Lousteauthe other applicants for Together for Change.
At the start of the presidential campaign, Larreta does not want to negotiate her autonomy. In fact, after being asked if he would involve the former president in setting up his Cabinet, he replied: “It is the president’s decision. It would be my decision.” Macri won a roundbut the head of government remains firm in the fight.
battles. In Larreta’s environment, the definitions are forceful: “Today the bridges with Mauritius are all broken”. The anger began with the decision of the mayor of Buenos Aires to make the election concurrent and persist to date. “We found out that Macri pulverized Horacio in private meetings. He says barbaric things”, they add visibly angry.
In public, the former president overacts the good internal climate: “We are organized, working on the election in the City, it will be an interesting primary,” Macri said. And he completed: “The City always had a high standard in competition and we are going to give Lousteau equivalent competition conditions.” in those wordsLarreta will continue to carry out political activities with Lousteauthe radical candidate, one of the issues that makes those who make up the hard wing of the PRO the most furious.
Despite the public messages to reduce tensions, so far in the campaign Macri continues to show himself closer to Patricia Bullrich. Far from the balance that he had promised the contenders in the summer. And even some leaders with a black palate speculate that he will finally make public his support for his former Minister of Security.
For this reason, the “hawks” celebrated the appointment of the former president’s cousin as their own. Although Larreta does not feel that way: “I brought Jorge as an official of my government almost two years ago and I accompanied him on the tours”, indicated the head of government in the “Modo Fontevecchia” program. A way to make up the setback.
Beyond the elections, another topic to ponder will later be the audit of the outgoing management. The so-called inheritance. What will Rodríguez Larreta’s successor do when he takes over as head of the Buenos Aires Government? Will Jorge Macri be the one to examine the management of his predecessor? What will happen to the cases in the Buenos Aires Justice that affect the City Government?
To cite an example, last week four officials were called for investigation that depend on the City Attorney investigated for possible fraud and falsification of public documents in a contest to designate agents who collect debt from AGIP. One of the presidents who won that contest appears in the minutes as present and with an almost excellent rating, but According to the immigration records that were contributed to the file, on the day of the exam, he was in Peru.. After four years, the cause moved. Judicial times are always a mystery.
The other fight. As soon as the internship in the City was arranged, attention was paid to the Province. It is one of the issues that Rodríguez Larreta and his possible successor from PRO have already discussed. It is that Jorge Macri could help him in his strategy of accumulating power in the Province and continue positioning Diego Santilli, but for that he would have to break neutrality with Bullrich.
Beyond the efforts of the other Juntos por el Cambio spaces for the PRO to achieve unity in Buenos Aires, Bullrich already has his candidate in Néstor Grindetti to face Santilli. The problem is bigger: Only a handful of the 135 Buenos Aires municipalities will have a unit list, which weakens the armor. “It’s out of control,” protests one of the strategists. The danger is in losing, even, some of the territories where they already govern.
The most optimistic believe that there will be peace after the internal ones. “We are campaigning. There were, are and will be short circuits”, they play down the drama in Together for Change.
The problem is that, due to so much internal wear and tear, they end up losing an election that they believe they have won today.
The PRO method to choose candidates:
Since the mechanism to elect the sole PRO candidate was established, confidence reigned in Jorge Macri’s environment. “It’s going to be him,” they celebrated in advance. In mid-May, the space leadership decided that three consultants would measure the cousin of the former president and his opponent, Fernán Quirós. The same protagonists were in charge of agreeing on who would carry out the survey.
The results of Isonomía, Aresco and Trespuntozero they were in the hands of the leaders a day before Larreta announced the winner and they gave differences of between 4 and 8 points in voting intention. According to studies, Macri’s vote is better consolidated, although Quirós surpassed him in a positive image. He didn’t catch up with that.
