The main referents of Together for Change (JxC) staged in the suburbs of Buenos Aires the long-awaited unit Photo, after the rudeness that arose inside the coalition doors after the request from former president Mauricio Macri for the PRO to return to its origins and distance itself from radicalism.
Until San Justo, in the heart of The slaughter and -therefore- in one of the main Peronist strongholds of the country, the main leaders of the opposition conglomerate arrived to take a photo of unity and inaugurate a format that will continue during the coming months: meetings with thematic axes.
The La Matanza meeting focused on the social politics, with a dynamic that the coalition will repeat in future meetings, and that consists of each ‘leg’ of JxC -the UCR, the PRO, the Civic Coalition and Miguel Pichetto’s Republican Peronism- present the conclusions of their technical teams on the topic in question; then there is a synthesis and a joint document and, finally, the political referents explain the conclusions.
These PvC themed encounters will have new stops: June 10, at Cordova, we will talk about “Production”; on July 1, in Between rivers, of “Sustainable Development”; on the 18th of the same month, in the Buenos aires city, will be discussed on “International Relations”, and on July 29, in Neuquen, the chapter “Energy” will be covered.
In this way, the opposition will navigate the coming months between two ideas: the attempts to show unity and the differentiation operation, which has already begun and which will seek to show the differences, for example, between radicalism and the PRO towards the PASO.
Perhaps the one who most firmly proposed this operation to “uncheck” the UCR was the macri, who in several appearances with leaders of his party asked that the PRO return to its original format, closer to the right and further from the political center.
Macri’s proposal arises from his own conviction but also from observing the polls, which continue to mark a constant growth of the ultraliberal economist Javier Mileiwho according to the polls is “stealing” voters from the PRO on the right.
This was discussed during the yellow party summit convened by Macri himself last Thursday, where the former president introduced him to the party leadership -Patricia Bullrich, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta and María Eugenia Vidal (he was remote because he was positive for coronavirus), among others- political consultant Guillermo Raffo, expert in electoral scenarios.
Raffo, who has extensive experience having advised several Argentine and Latin American leaders in setting up their campaigns, lives in Brazil, and offered his vision of the Milei phenomenon and his comparison with the president of that country, Jair Bolsonaro.
In that debate, held at the PRO offices on Balcarce street, in San Telmo, the conclusion was reached that society is not tired of politics per se, but of what Milei calls the “political caste“, that is, of the benefits that citizens perceive politicians to have.
These issues will be included in the speech of the PRO candidates, who also agreed to resume the campaign method with walks and permanent tours of the neighborhoods: show up close to people.
Despite these coincidences within the yellow party, there are still two different models on how to present themselves in the next election: the “hawk” mode of Macri and Bullrich, with economic orthodoxy and a party closed in on itself, in contrast to the mode ” dove” of Larreta, which seeks to represent positions of the center and wants to open the space to multiple political expressions, including radicals and Peronists.
The positioning around Milei also divides waters: Macri and Bullrich seduce him, while Larreta and the radical Gerardo Morales have already warned that they reject him.
While these debates continue within the PRO, radicalism shows other times and its two presidential candidates bet, in one case, to show management in his province, Morales from Jujuy, or to talk about his idea of Argentina in the 21st century, as Facundo Manes, from Buenos Aires, does, who maintains good levels of social acceptance based on not interfering in political fights and continuing with his agenda linked to science and education.
Morales and Manes met during the week in the city of Barcelona, where both traveled for different reasons: the governor of Jujuy to participate in a congress on energy held in Spain and Manes to attend a symposium of neurologists, while also holding a meeting with young Argentines living in Catalonia.
Seeing the raging river in the PRO, Manes and Morales agreed to differentiate themselves from those discussions, show the unity of radicalism and strengthen the party.
They believe that the moment for the candidacies will come at the end of the year and that until then it is preferable not to wear themselves out prematurely.
