"It was a process ,"
Rolando Figueroa
assured
once his victory in this province was confirmed, when asked about the break with the
Neuquino Popular Movement
, or rather with the structure led by former president Jorge Sapag.
The governor-elect navigated the campaign with a
delicate balance
between the tough speech against the management of Omar Gutiérrez and the vindication of the "foundational values" of the MPN.
He took care not to criticize the party
but rather the internal line of the government, with the purpose of capturing votes and at the same time with an eye on the day after the election.
"
The Blue list lost, all of us from Neuquén won
," he maintained that position during the festivities, and gave his first signs that he will seek to lead the electoral machine that had not lost any election for executive positions until this Sunday.
-
What would you say to the sector of the MPN that called you a traitor?
, they asked him late at night at the press conference.
-
I have no question to talk about that nature with anyone.
Yes, I would meet with the political leaders to agree
on how we can make our province grow together.
Accountant, 54 years old and close to the FdT in Congress
54
years
old this Saturday, public accountant, Figueroa was mayor of Huinganco and Chos Malal.
He is also a provincial deputy.
The “process” by which he attributes the break with the party structure started before
Gutiérrez took office as lieutenant governor
, in 2015, he told
Clarín
in an interview prior to the elections.
“We were always an internal faction, and since September of that year there was a break when we took a candidate for mayor in Plottier and the ruling party Azul supported someone from another political party.
I already took office as lieutenant governor with a difference and halfway through my term they proposed that I become a national deputy.
They already wanted to get me out
”, He gave his version of the estrangement that followed with an inmate in which he was defeated.
In 2021 there was another dispute in the PASO for the legislative elections, in which he prevailed, and then accused the ruling party of "working" for its rivals in the general elections for national deputies.
In Congress, he maintained the monobloc of the MPN and
in general moved as an ally of the Frente de Todos
.
The following year he set up the
Neuquinizate
front to go abroad, with collectors from PRO, radicalism, Peronists, socialism, the Frente Grande and the Evita Movement.
He met with Mauricio Macri in Villa La Angostura, and later Horacio Rodríguez Larreta and Patricia Bullrich also supported him, although there were no joint activities due to Figueroa's strategy of provincializing the election. Sergio Massa came out to greet him this Monday, which led to criticism from Elisa Carrió.
With an ambivalent position, without criticizing the whole of the MPN and at the same time with a hard speech to channel the discomfort due to the economic crisis and the increase in insecurity in the province, he
bet on polarization
with the candidate Marcos Koopmann -his successor in the deputy governorship- and thus
attract the useful vote to propose itself as a renewal
after six decades of hegemony of the space founded by Felipe Sapag in 1961.
The exploitation of the potential of Vaca Muerta, the world's second largest gas reserve and fourth unconventional oil reserve, was also discussed in the campaign.
“
We Neuquén do not want the spill
, but rather the main course of what we generate.
We pay much more for energy than the Capital, and we produce it ourselves, ”he proclaimed on the night of the triumph.
“Everything is closely linked to Vaca Muerta.
Neuquén is extraordinary but this enables business for people from the Capital linked to politics.
That is the reason why they go for Figueroa
”, Carrió pointed out to the PRO for the support of the winning list.
Figueroa will have time to define the orientation and political structure of his government.
He will take office on December 10, in almost eight months.
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