Ignacio Miri
06/17/2021 7:28 PM
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 06/17/2021 7:28 PM
Even in the muted way in which conflicts are usually handled in the PRO, Mauricio Macri and Horacio Rodríguez Larreta almost publicly established their differences about the way in which the electoral lists for this year should be integrated in Juntos por el Cambio.
Strictly speaking,
they are not only discussing who the candidates
for national deputies in the City and Province of Buenos Aires should be: underneath that divergence is also the perception of
their own future as political leaders
and of the conformation and profile that should be have Together for Change in the years to come.
Macri does not want the conflict, or the internal conflict between Rodríguez Larreta and himself, to put it another way, to be resolved this year. The former president believes that, as
his friend
Carlos Melconian
told
Clarín
, the
upcoming
election
"is the most important in the last 40 years
.
"
"If Cristina wins this election, she advances more on Justice and I end up like the opponents of Nicaragua," Macri tends to say to those who visit him, combining concern for his personal future and the panorama that is presented to him, according to his point of view, country. His idea is that, in this context, whoever was his right hand at the Head of Government may well postpone his launch as presidential candidate until next year.
Macri complains about the lack of definition of María Eugenia Vidal -who will announce in the coming days if she will be a candidate in the Capital or the Province of Buenos Aires- and says without dissimulation that he prefers that the former governor
play in the most populated district of the country
and not in the city. "She is the best candidate we have there, anyone else comes one step lower," said the former president this week in one of the talks he held at his offices in Olivos.
According to the leaders who continue to accompany Macri after his departure from the presidency, Vidal's decision - who has a lunch scheduled with Macri upon his return from the United States - has to serve so that Together for Change
achieves the best possible result in the Province
. The former president believes that the passing of Diego Santilli to the other side of General Paz does not contribute much to the PRO's offer and that, in addition, it leaves the Macrista mayors of the Conurbano angry, especially Jorge Macri, who has already said several times that He is interested in jumping from Vicente López to the Buenos Aires government.
It is not the same as Rodríguez Larreta believes.
Although the head of government also considers that this choice may be decisive for his personal future,
his conviction is tied to another reasoning
.
Rodríguez Larreta became convinced that
the time had come to give signs
that he intends to become the head of the political space that Macri founded.
In their environment they consider that Rodríguez Larreta has to build on the basis of Together for Change but
add "something different" to the coalition
.
"If we don't put together something different, why do we want to become President?", Explains a leader who plays for the Buenos Aires boss but now from the refuge of anonymity.
Rodríguez Larreta told his team that
he has no intention of resigning the first place on the list
of national deputies in the City to Patricia Bullrich. "I
cannot stop putting the first
on the list in the district that the government: all governors do," he explained to a man on his political team to justify why he had asked Vidal to be a candidate in the City.
In one of the talks they had in recent weeks, Rodríguez Larreta made a different argument before Macri: he told him that with Vidal as a candidate they could get
"one more deputy"
in the City, because the former governor has a much higher ceiling than the president of the PRO. The former president adds a sly smile when he recounts that conversation in private.
The idea of the head of Government is that
an "interesting" STEP in the Province
can be beneficial for Juntos por el Cambio. What is an interesting STEP for the group that surrounds Rodríguez Larreta? A competition between Facundo Manes, Diego Santilli, Elisa Carrió and José Luis Espert. Macri, although a week ago
he told Manes in a private conversation
that with the support of radicalism he is in a position to overcome the PRO, he considers that all of them are one step below Vidal.
How will that dispute be resolved? Neither Macri nor Rodríguez Larreta consider an intern among different PRO lists desirable. "One thing is a STEP with the radicals and another is that we ourselves cannot agree.
That is not normal,
" Macri tends to say. That coincidence ends when they begin to mention the names of the heads of the lists, and the discussion will continue until they manage to diagram an exit that
does not reveal a defeat
in the internal for any of them.