The alignment of a group of radicals from Córdoba with the presidential candidacy of Patricia Bullrich stirred up internal discussions in Together for Change, prior to the National Convention of the UCR and four weeks before the closing of the lists. On the side of Horacio Rodríguez Larreta and Gerardo Morales sought to dismiss the relevance of the announcement, although it generated impact in the PRO and noise among the coreligionists.
The movement provoked crosses, because it was the first pronouncement in favor of one of the presidential candidates of the PRO when two referents of the radicalism, Morales and Facundo Manes, maintain their ambitions to dispute the pre-candidacy of Together for Change.
Rodriguez Larreta and Bullrich dispute the support of the various sectors of the UCR, and even circulate names of possible candidates for vice president with the scheme of crossed formulas, but mostly with underground negotiations, without public expressions.
"The first of many steps that will come together," Bullrich harangued in a video to announce the agreement by which Oscar Aguad, former defense minister, mayors such as Luis Picat (Jesus Maria), Deputy Soledad Carrizo and provincial legislators endorsed his candidacy. They called it Junta Promotora Radical Patricia Presidente.
In the team of the former Minister of Security they are working to get more pronouncements of that type and the next ones would be in San Juan, Santiago del Estero, Salta and Chaco. "We are whitewashing a reality. In the party we do not have a strong candidate for president, and as Together for Change we have nothing left over," argued one of the Cordovan radicals.
Oscar Aguad and other leaders of Córdoba, at the event to support the candidacy of Patricia Bullrich.
The episode, in the run-up to the National Convention on June 12, did not go down well in the UCR sector led by Morales. "It has no significance. She gets into dividing the radicalism and that is going to play against her," they pointed to Bullrich near the governor of Jujuy and head of the party, closer to Rodriguez Larreta.
"I regret the disloyal attitude of the pre-candidate for president with an ally in Together for Change such as the UCR. I also regret that of those Cordovan affiliates, a few days before our National Convention. On its agenda is the consideration of our electoral policy," Maria Luisa Storani, vice president of the party, said at the crossing.
At its meeting scheduled for two weeks, the party body would define the framework of alliances, aimed at ratifying the membership of Together for Change and eventually expanding according to programmatic coincidences. In principle, I would not go further.
The effect on the province
Radical referents of Córdoba such as Rodrigo de Loredo and Mario Negri tried to show themselves outside the struggle for the presidency, to avoid impacting the provincial elections. Juan Schiaretti called the gubernatorial elections for June 25, just one day after the closing of lists nationwide.
Diego Santilli, Martín Lousteau, Gerardo Morales and Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, in January in Mar del Plata.
"We already ask that they not move the quilombo here," the claim was repeated. Luis Juez will be the candidate of Together for Change, and a month later De Loredo will compete for the mayor of the capital. Also, as in other districts, a sector of the UCR pushes an agreement of single lists to national legislators, as in 2015.
"Can you imagine in Córdoba fighting the places until the day before the provincial election? It would be crazy," warned one of the promoters. Others argued that competition in the PASO will be inevitable, and convenient so that they are less injured: "In many cases it is difficult to find someone in common and the finger can be worse."
In Rodriguez Larreta's bunker, they also dismissed what Bullrich presented as an advance in the race for the PRO's presidential candidacy. "It's the trade-off between mouse's head or lion's tail. Patricia has no territorial armed almost anywhere, it is a very unpopulated field. Sometimes those who do not find a place with us go with her," said a Buenos Aires official.
Rodríguez Larreta does not plan to replicate the announcement to show other sectors of the radicalism aligned with his presidential project. "It is not necessary," they ruled out at the headquarters on Uspallata Street. The closeness with Morales and Martín Lousteau was already evident, reflected in that Beatle photo in Mar del Plata.
That partnership of Rodríguez Larreta with a sector of the radicalism generated misgivings in Mauricio Macri, promoter of his cousin Jorge in the City and distant with Morales. In return, Bullrich was shown with Manes, Alfredo Cornejo, Rodolfo Suárez, Gustavo Valdés, Carolina Losada and Luis Naidenoff in the Mendoza Harvest.
Patricia Bullrich, in Mendoza with Gustavo Valdés, Facundo Manes, Rodolfo Suárez, Alfredo Cornejo, Luis Naidenoff, Carolina Losada and other leaders.
"The UCR is not going to be unified in a single person," he functioned as a message, in a scenario that is maintained in the run-up to the decisive stage of the electoral definitions.
That cut, although from both sides they assure that "nothing is closed", includes hypotheses about possible candidates for vice. As Bullrich's possible running mates, Suárez, Naidenoff and the Buenos Aires native Maximliano Abad, referenced in Ernesto Sanz, transcended. Also De Loredo, although he was discarded with his candidacy to the intendancy of Córdoba.
"It has to be someone with experience, I value public experience very much, and with a federal head," Rodriguez Larreta said earlier this month. In his case, the definition would come on the edge of June 24.
See also
