For the first time in history, the city of San Juan will have a woman as mayor as of December 10.
The national deputy Susana Laciar, candidate for a sub group called Production and Labor that is within the United Front for San Juan, allied in turn to Together for Change, made a historic election on Sunday night and thus aborted the re-election aspiration of Emilio Baistrocchi, the current mayor and dolphin of Governor Sergio Uñac. Baistrocchi acknowledged the victory of his rival by between 12 and 13 points of difference.
In the midst of the complex law of slogans imposed by Uñac at the end of last year, there are different speculations about the defeat of his former government minister and about the victory of this lawyer, 54, mother of three children, separated and remarried in second marriage. She was a provincial deputy and vice presidential candidate for Marcelo Orrego in his previous candidacy.
Born in the capital and without a political clan to back her, but loyal to Orrego, the gubernatorial candidate of Together for Change, Laciar prevailed over the other four candidates of the United for San Juan slogan, and defeated Baistrocchi, who had the support of the local government apparatus.
The defeat of the mayor of the provincial capital can be attributed to different reasons, but centrally local. One of them is that he concentrated on the microcenter and neglected the periphery of the city. And that in that objective the neighbors do not forgive the expenditure of 40 million pesos in the restoration of the historic Plaza 25 de Mayo when there are other outstanding debts.
In the following interview with Clarín, Laciar talked about provincial and national politics.
Why do you think they voted for you?
The capital of San Juan is the capital of a province where everything that is the center of political, financial, commercial, economic administration is concentrated. For a long time he had been electing different mayors, but always of the same political color. Evidently he got the message that it was necessary to wake up, as is the slogan of our gubernatorial candidate, Marcelo Orrego, and what we have talked about in the campaign.
Susana Laciar, allied to Together for Change, will be the first mayor of this city. In the photo with his main local ally, the candidate for governor allied to Together for Change, Marcelo Orrego.
What slogan are we talking about?
We awaken above all what is the recovery of values. That was our forte since the campaign. The neighbors of the capital are thriving neighbors, merchants, professionals, independents and we want things to be done well on the one hand and on the other hand, that who is in charge circumstantially, in this case of an executive position, do things well, without disturbing the neighbors, who leave the way free. It's so simple...
Likewise, how do you see the situation of the capital? It is something exceptional since Uñac also won: he obtained some 14 mayorships out of 19 and also achieved a majority in the provincial Chamber of Deputies.
We retained the Intendancy of Santa Lucia, the Intendancy of Rivadavia. We recovered Sarmiento's and until late at night another one was being discussed although I still do not have the results.
What do you think Baistrocchi failed at then?
That has to be answered by Baistrocchi.
But there's always something more...
Here we are like a big neighborhood in San Juan, in the Capital and ultimately, we all end up getting to know each other. In Capital we did an arduous job of going through the different neighborhoods, of seeing the neighbors, of listening to them, of listening to the neighborhood unions, to the professional associations ... We all know that we walk the street and that today we are in an area and tomorrow we are not. So, they know my seriousness, our responsibility, our transparency and our honesty. These were the transversal axes with which we spoke to the neighbor. Transparency, proximity management and value generation, that this is what they are asking for and I am confident and sure that the neighbors are asking for it. This is what we have to work on in the first moment.
It is said that one of the criticisms of the current mayor is that he concentrated his management on improving only the microcenter and abandoned the periphery of the city.
The Capital has 31 square kilometers of territory. It is not very large, but it is densely populated because it is the capital and because it is a strongly commercial and industrial area. The successive administrations of the Justicialist governments have dealt with the microcenter sectors. They forget that the capital also has sectors outside, destitute districts of Concepción, of Trinidad. I could tell you that they are 30% or 40%, where there is a serious lack of minor works.
For example?
Lack of asphalt, sidewalks, an irrigation system, ditch cord and that in a capital of the province, at this point, in the XXI century and with so much waste. There are districts that evidently with the successive Justicialist governments were not being served. In this moment of so much unrest in which people see so much distance between them and politics, what they always ask is that when they leave the door of their homes, life is easier. Not necessarily to do a great work but to do what is just and necessary so that I do not fall, that I have pavement and take care of the essential.
Laciar does not want to define herself as an ally at the national level of any pre-candidate, although Orrego has been more linked to Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, who visited San Juan. However, the elected mayor also highlights the visits of Patricia Bullrich, Miguel Angel Pichetto, María Eugenia Vidal and Ricardo López Murphy,
"We share this space, we share the values of all these national references. Then, as a particular political space to which I belong, we will make some decision about the internal national sphere. The important thing is that they are all referents of a national model that identifies us and that distances us deeply from the governing model of Alberto Fernández and Cristina Fernández."
Are you, like Orrego, against Uñac's current candidacy?
Yes. The Supreme Court ruled on the grounds of the precautionary measure. And if you look at the fundamentals, they are very similar to what he took in other previous cases, where the candidates were not qualified, and could not be candidates. I'm talking about Río Negro, the case of Zamora (Santiago del Estero)... We therefore have confidence in the Court and await the final judgement soon. I said it at first, the governor could no longer be a candidate for a fourth term because he is currently going through the third constitutional term. One term as lieutenant governor, two terms as governor. The formula is formed together. It is an elective formula that citizens cannot separate and elect a governor from one space, a lieutenant governor from another space.
But Uñac recalls that article 175 of the provincial constitution of 2011 says nothing that the binomial is indissoluble.
Yes. He has repeated it tirelessly, but we have told him and the Court has told him. Now, what the governor must definitely understand is that he is not the owner of the province. What Kirchnerism as a whole must understand is that they are nobody's owners, please! What other outrage are you going to say? Already too much has brought the people of San Juan to their knees, believing that they are the owner of everything. Stop it! The people of San Juan are saying Enough! Beyond having particularly chosen a candidate in some department, we put a brake on the trampling of institutions. Enough, governor, that's it.
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