Elections in Neuquén: the hegemony of the ruling party, for the first time in more than 60 years challenged by a wayward of the MPN

"The movement will win, we have to see which one

," says the waiter from the restaurant on Avenida Argentina, cautious, without risking a result, with a look that is repeated in this city wrapped in the first cold of the year in the run-up to the elections this Sunday.

The Neuquino Popular Movement, the hegemonic party,

, has

, a national deputy from the same space,

appears as the main challenger .

It is a

of Omar Gutiérrez, the governor without the possibility of reelection.

Koopmann is the current vice and Figueroa, his predecessor.

Both counters.

Figueroa, the wayward, has the

and a collector of PRO legislators, although he seeks to provincialize the election with the "Neuquinizate" front.

Rolando Figueroa, the candidate of the Neuquinizate front, at the closing of the campaign in the Plaza de las Banderas.

The ruling party bears the stamp of the MPN, the

-five times governor- in 1961, as a way out of the proscription of Peronism, and led by his nephew Jorge, at the head of the district from 2007 to 2015, now head of party convention and space chief.

Felipe was even an auditor during a dictatorship, between 1970 and 1972.

Koopmann tries to dismiss the scenario of polarization and accuses the rest of the candidates (six in total) of

the province.

"The only thing that interests them is to take the resources of Vaca Muerta to Buenos Aires, they come for our gas and our oil," he said this Thursday at the closing of the campaign, in Zapala.

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“Let's think about what the national parties have done for the people of Neuquén.

.

They have only left us with more inflation, poverty, anguish and uncertainty”, he reinforced that discursive line.

From the official MPN they sent Figueroa's meetings with Macri in the country Cumelén, in Villa La Angostura, and the support of the former president with a video to the list of PRO legislators.

Without differences in this case, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, Patricia Bullrich and María Eugenia Vidal moved in the same direction as the former president.

The radical

kept the name of the coalition and is supported by the UCR, Elisa Carrió -he traveled to support him- and some local PRO leaders, such as his vice candidate Jorge Taylor.

Pablo Cervi, the candidate for Together for Change, received the support of Elisa Carrió.

Figueroa did not appear with any national referent

, with the purpose of counteracting Koopmann's strategy and at the same time capturing part of the MPN vote.

In his speech, he vindicates the "foundational values" of the movement and its founder Felipe Sapag, and is careful not to question the space but rather the Blue list, the internal line armed by Jorge Sapag in 2005, when he clashed with the former President Jorge Sobisch.

Among the collectors, in addition to the PRO, it carries Peronist, radical, socialist, Evita Movement and Frente Grande candidates, among other spaces.

“The great agreement for Neuquén jumped the crack.

The enemies are the problems and injustices of

.

There is a misgovernment of the Blue list," Figueroa emphasized before the start of the ban, with a closing ceremony in the Plaza de las Banderas, with the purpose of capitalizing on the anger over the economic crisis and a certain wear and tear - he speaks of a "model exhausted”- of management.

"The

that the Blue list has designed, linked to the families of power, has co-opted other powers of the State so that it is not known who is guilty of corruption", the tone hardened in the last stretch, with the focus in a maneuver to divert funds from social plans that expelled the former provincial Social Development Minister, Abel Di Luca, from office.

One of the discussions in the preview revolved around whether or not there will be polarization this Sunday.

With the objective of attracting the useful vote, Figueroa encouraged this hypothesis.

Gutiérrez and Koopmann dismissed it.

In the MPN they were confident in a "difference between 7 and 10 points" and they sought to install the MPN deputy in a

, the former mayor of Cutral Co and a Kirchnerist candidate.

Ramón Rioseco, former mayor of Cutral Co and candidate of the Frente de Todos.

Even so, from the ruling party they admit that this election will be "special" and that it mobilized the party for the challenge of a wayward and the unprecedented scenario of a possible open result.

Another question will be the performance of

, Javier Milei's candidate.

The libertarian economist went through the province to support the media businessman - a former ally of Carrió - with extreme positions.

Between the two rivals of the MPN, in turn, there was a controversy over publicity on public roads: Figueroa denounced that they did not provide spaces for him and arranged people with posters in the streets.

“

The citizen reserves the opinion of how he is going to vote because a member of the family works in the State”, assured the former lieutenant governor and former mayor of Chos Malal.

Close to Koopmann, they replied that private registered employment doubles that of the public, partly from the development of Vaca Muerta, and referred to

to question his harsh discourse against the movement.

Behind in the polls, Rioseco received the

such as Minister Gabriel Katopodis and Deputy Carlos Heller.

The leader took off the elections in Cutral Co -governed by his brother- to leave open the possibility of running again in that municipality.

For the Left Front will go

, leader of ATEN, the only female candidate.

With a single electronic ballot for the first time in the entire province, the 546,166 eligible voters will have to choose between 27 options for the collector system.

Koopmann brings ten lists to legislators and Figueroa another nine.

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