Larreta and Macri, in the midst of tensions after defining what the elections will be like in the federal capital / web
The worsening of the crisis, with inflation running at levels above 104% annualized but with different variables of the economy “plugged in” that portend new sharp jumps in prices when they are released, shows a political leadership looking at its navel without projecting a sustainable solution to the complex social situation that will lead to the “failed” experiment of the Frente de Todos. In Together for Change today they try to avoid a definitive crack as a result of the implosion that the open-air fight between Horacio Rodríguez Larreta and Mauricio Macri produced in the PRO after the authorization of concurrent elections in CABA that, according to the hard wing of the “party yellow”, would give some competitive advantage to the radical Martín Lousteau.
Although the emancipation strategy of the mayor of Buenos Aires is explained by tactical issues, he tries to build leadership with JxC partners to face the increasingly evident tandem made up of Macri and Patricia Bullrich, it represents a risk for the future of an opposition coalition that accelerates his own tensions as he sees his return to power closer. Although in Casa Rosada they tend to argue that in the armed opposition “they are having dinner for lunch” with this supposed triumphalism, the drift in which the ruling party finds itself, without a common project and with a management that fails to winnow the feeling of permanent crisis, sustains the greater competitiveness that the opposition seems to show in the face of the presidential elections on October 22.
The act of last Thursday with which Kirchnerism again attacked the Supreme Court exposed that the operative clamor for “Cristina 2023” is deflating. Without the Vice at the top of the FdT ballot, which is the one that best measures in previous polls, the possibility of a “consensus” candidate emerging is not observed today. For this reason, both from the Executive and from other sectors of the ruling party, they observe that they will inevitably have to go through the STEP with the latent risk of aggravating the tensions between the sides in conflict. The uncertainty is great and today no one envisions a meeting between Alberto and Cristina to agree on basic issues of the electoral machinery of Peronism.
A union leader with weight in the CGT was disappointed with the entire political class and acknowledged that it is not prepared to outline state policies such as a pension reform that prevents a collapse of pensions in the near future. “It is something necessary but they are not prepared. Macron is burning Paris for this reform and it is terrifying to think about what could happen here, ”he resigned himself. He is one of the many trade union leaders who gave Sergio Massa a thumbs down in parallel to the inflationary overflow and who resists his presence at the CGCE event for May 1st. He clings to the illusion that a triumphant governor in the elections that will be held in five provinces on May 14 will “dress as a candidate”.
“defeatism”
But today a climate of “defeatism” prevails in various sectors of the official coalition that do not even observe a binding project that allows them to reach the next elections in the best way. The weight of the crisis operates in this spirit, but also of the permanent internal crisis. Thus, the justicialist governors but also many mayors of the Conurbano “wire” their territories and only concentrate on conserving power. They are not even moved by the illusion of “Cristina’s surprise move” that they expect in Kirchnerism. “This is the 2001 of Peronism because it stopped being the party of order and power. You can already see a total disbandment, nobody wants to take charge,” said a Buenos Aires leader who agreed with the aforementioned trade unionist that on May 14 he could shed some certainty on the armed forces coming from the ruling party.
Meanwhile, questions persist about how the link between Massa and the Vice President will be in the short term.
The clock towards the elections is speeding up and there is no “platita plan” in sight. Yes, the Instituto Patria is concerned about the inflationary effects of the “agro dollar” that the Treasury granted to the countryside to obtain foreign currency to rebuild increasingly weak reserves. At the Liaison Table, however, they demand more measures to mitigate the recessive effects of the drought.
Larreta, Bullrich and Javier Milei were at La Rural on Wednesday promising a reduction in export withholdings. There were gestures between the JxC candidate and the libertarian leader. Macri also, in a previous event on the same stage, “raised the price” for the economist by including him in a possible ballot with a candidate from the opposition coalition.
In the PRO no one doubts that until the PASO the former president and Bullrich will make an alliance more visible due to “the natural link between them.” Proof of this was the step aside taken by the former Security Minister in the party’s presidency, leaving his place to Macrista deputy Federico Angelini and, in parallel, seeking to expose Larreta, whom he accuses of relegating management due to recurring trips to the inside for campaigning.
Question mark
The big question is whether Macri will make this support explicit before August 13 or will provide it, more subtly, in “dragees.” He does seem determined to get involved in the ordering of his party in the face of the challenge that he considers the mayor of Buenos Aires submitted to him not only when deciding the form of voting in the capital but also with his latest statements. “He does not forget these provocations as the good Calabrian that he is,” said, with humor, a deputy who knows both referents and rules out that the former president will continue to be involved in the electoral definition of the opposition coalition.
Despite the mayor’s rapprochement with radicalism, on Friday he was in Mendoza supporting Alfredo Cornejo after the “uprising” of deputy Omar de Marchi (PRO) who will compete for the governorship outside of JxC, in the environment of the former Minister of Security they assure that it continues negotiating with the referents of the centenary party with a view to what they consider an inevitable confection of crossed formulas.
The presidential candidate of the UCR, Gerardo Morales, went out to bank the mayor of Buenos Aires and remarked that the single ballot, arranged in CABA to separate it from the national sheet lists, “is a flag of JxC.” The governor of Jujuy tried in the last hours to calm the troubled waters in the “yellow party” due to the fear that these shocks would affect the unity of the armed opposition.
Distrust
The rapprochement of the hard wing of the PRO with Milei, a histrionic critic of Raúl Alfonsín, also generates mistrust in the Civic Coalition. Elisa Carrió expects clear gestures from Macri that do not compromise the unity of the opposition alliance, that for some reason the top leaders of the parties that make it up insist on saying that “unity is not at stake.”
The two alliances are the scenario chosen for the internship. The country is not entertained by that spectacle.
At the Liaison Table they demand more measures to mitigate the effects of the drought
