The internal fights tense the great opposition coalition of Argentina one year before the elections

There is one year left for the presidential elections in Argentina.

With Alberto Fernández sinking in the polls and inflation approaching 80% year-on-year, the opposition is confident of a victory at the polls in 2023. However, the internal fights between several members of the Together for Change coalition to win the candidacy presidential election make this alliance of parties formed in 2015 creak.

The last to throw darts in public has been the neuroscientist Facundo Manes, a member of the centenary Radical Civic Union (UCR), one of the coalition partners.

“[Mauricio] Macri has to reflect because in his government he had constitutional populism.

There were operators who handled the Justice, there was also data that even people from his government were spied on,” Manes said about the former Argentine president in a television interview on Sunday night, referring to a court case for espionage for which he has been dismissed.

Manes compared Macri with his predecessor, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, and assured that both embody two leaderships “that prevent the country from thinking” and which must be overcome with a new, more inclusive option.

Manes' criticism of Macri reveals the strong power dispute within the opposition and the important role that the former president retains.

“The Manes thing is unacceptable.

The only possible objective of a declaration like this is to break the opposition”, criticized the macrista deputy Fernando Iglesias.

“In Together for Change they learned that Macri should not be retired.

Everything is circular in Argentina.

And be careful, that the dead that you kill today can revive tomorrow,” warned veteran politician Miguel Ángel Pichetto, who caused a surprise in 2015 when he switched from Kirchnerism to Macrismo.

Macri, in Spain

The former president, visiting Spain, has chosen not to respond and remains uncertain as to whether he will try to fight for the candidacy of Together for the Change to the Presidency in 2023. The autobiography published last year under the title Primer tiempo implied his desire to dispute a second part, but in the last interviews he assures that he has not yet made a decision.

Within his party, Republican Proposal (Pro), the names that sound the loudest are the current mayor of Buenos Aires, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, and former Security Minister Patricia Bullrich.

The moderate positions of the former have collided several times with those of Bullrich, who is committed to a strong hand to prevent street closures and evict protesters.

A middle way between the two is embodied by another possible candidate, the former governor of the province of Buenos Aires, María Eugenia Vidal.

From the UCR, for its part, in addition to Manes, it is committed to the candidacy of the governor of the northwestern province of Jujuy, Gerardo Morales.

The internal fights intensify in the midst of the weakness of the Government headed by Fernández.

The president reached a 68% positive image at the start of the covid-19 pandemic, 20 percentage points more than the 48.2% who had voted for him in 2019. However, his positive image has been declining and now for soils: it is 8%, according to the latest survey by the consulting firm Giacobbe & Asociados.

The economic problems faced by the Peronist Executive are aggravated by the judicial front for which the vice president must answer, accused of having been in charge of an illicit association destined to enrich himself with funds from public works in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz.

Political scientists believe that, despite the differences, the opposition coalition is far from breaking up, but they warn that Argentina is an unpredictable country.

Subscribe here to the EL PAÍS América newsletter and receive all the key information on current affairs in the region.