Ignacio Ortelli
02/05/2021 9:05 AM
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 02/05/2021 9:44 AM
After the new request of the Peronist governors to suspend the PASO, and amid the uncertainty over the vaccination process and the health situation, the Government is analyzing three alternatives and the possibility of postponing the election date for a month.
The subject
occupied a good part of the almost three hours
that the reunion of “the table of five” lasted, the weekly lunch between President
Alberto Fernández
and the Chief of Staff,
Santiago Cafiero
;
the Minister of the Interior,
Eduardo “Wado” de Pedro
;
the head of the Chamber of Deputies,
Sergio Massa
;
and the head of the Frente de Todos block in the lower house,
Máximo Kirchner
.
With little expectation that the opposition will agree to suspend the primaries, since despite the fact that the radical governors Gerardo Morales (Jujuy) and Gustavo Valdés (Corrientes) accompanied the request that the Peronist Jorge Capitanich made this Wednesday to De Pedro, the The leadership of Together for Change maintains its rejection, the idea that takes more shape in the Government is to promote a project to postpone the date of the vote, as Marcelo Helfgot advanced in
Clarín
on January 24.
According could rebuild this newspaper with partners in the meeting Thursday at noon led the President at Casa Rosada, began to evaluate the idea of fixing that
one time the STEP are made "the last week of September or early October"
and pass the generals for "the last week of November."
This would
solve two dilemmas that the Government has
.
On the one hand, it would allow to capture votes from the opposition, since in December, and to stop the onslaught of the PJ governors,
a group of radical deputies
, led by
Carla Carrizo
and
Emiliano Yacobitti
, presented a project for the PASO to carry out the second Sunday in September, that is, September 12, 2021, with the expectation of giving more scope to the vaccination process for the pandemic.
The initiative, which includes a clause that establishes the prohibition of the suspension of the elections,
could now serve as negotiating currency
.
And also the Government to convince itself to move forward, since it would reduce the political cost: it would divide opinions in JxC and, although the exchange leadership did not agree, the mere fact of surrounding the project with a certain consensus would relativize the criticism.
However, for some opponents, the postponement of the election date due to the pandemic is an excuse used by the Government, speculating that an eventual rebound in the economy will improve their chances in the race.
The other problem that it dissolves is indoors, the one that caused Cristina's forceful silence at the idea of suspending the STEP.
This position of the vice was what caused her troops to freeze the debate in December.
With this new proposal, the electoral tool promoted by Néstor Kirchner during the first government of the current vice president would be maintained and at the same time it would conform to the governors.
At the table this Thursday, an option that appears unviable today was also heard: that for the only time the date of the PASO and the general elections be unified.
That is to say, that the vote serves for both elections.
That proposal would resemble the election to a slogan law format, with inmates on each electoral front and with a winner dragging votes from all the lists that comprise it.
However,
the alternative of the suspension of the PASO is not ruled out
.
It is that, according to the Government, it will depend on the health situation.
“Two months ago we believed that by this date we were going to have ten million people vaccinated and a different health scenario.
Today we cannot rule out anything and we have to think about all the scenarios.
And the opposition has to be aware of that, ”says a senior source surrounding Alberto Fernández, admitting that the government cannot advance without consensus.
As Clarín said, both in the City and the Province, which together contain almost half of the electoral roll, the opposition has the key to approve or not the suspension of the local PASO,
a complementary but fundamental measure
if the objective is to avoid a lack of control sanitary.
The deadlines begin to play a key role.
This Wednesday, Capitanich asked "to have a clear horizon in March" and the implementation of the Electoral Schedule is pressing, not only at the national level but also in the provinces.
However, for the Government, "there is time until April."
The government's expectation is that the management that Morales and Valdés would do with Larreta, according to Capitanich, will serve to pave the way.
PDL
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