Eight years in the City were not enough for Horacio Rodríguez Larreta to build a successor to suit him. The procedure that ended with the confirmation of Jorge Macri as candidate for head of government was, to say the least, messy.
It is worth reviewing the process. Until 2019, the year of Larreta's re-election, it was presumed that Diego Santilli, his deputy, could seek the Uspallata chair four years later. It was the position to which the current Buenos Aires deputy aspired then. But a structural decision led the PRO leadership to repeat formulas in City and Province, which buried Santilli's Buenos Aires dreams.
At that time there was already speculation about the shift of the vice porteño to the province to seek the governorship in 2023. The previous stop to settle, in 2021, forced another controversial move: Jorge Macri, head of the Buenos Aires PRO and mayor of Vicente López, only agreed to get off that year in exchange for a position in the Buenos Aires Government.
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The transfer also came with a vision of the future: in agreement with Larreta, the cousin of the former president would seek the head of Government of the City, despite the fact that until months before he questioned these electoral gambits.
Although in different areas – according to Clarín – the mayor of Buenos Aires warned that "everyone will be able to play" in the internal of the City, it was presumed that Jorge Macri ran with an advantage. But the lack of definition of his most famous cousin regarding a presidential candidacy, plus a very uncomfortable photo of the former mayor with Patricia Bullrich, detonated the bridges with Larreta.
In parallel, the head of government expanded (and continues to feed) the game that most alters Mauricio Macri. He deepened ties with Martín Lousteau, internal rival of the Buenos Aires PRO for the PASO. But in addition, he promoted three variants of his own within the party to confront the cousin of the former president in the City: legislator Emmanuel Ferrario, plus the ministers of Education Soledad Acuña and Health Fernán Quirós.
The underlying fight, always interpreted within Together for Change, was with the former president. And Larreta ended up yielding to the Macri: as Clarín was telling, none of the candidates promoted by the mayor took off in the polls. Was it worth the time and money spent on those campaigns?
The D'Alessandro background
But Quirós' capitulation also had an internal reading. With an idea that goes around in the Buenos Aires Government / larretismo since the departure of Marcelo D'Alessandro as Minister of Security, after a trip of the official with businessmen of the Clarín Group and judicial officials, after the illegal hacking of his phone.
D'Alessandro's forced resignation was the most traumatic step for Larreta. Beyond what was said in the media and personal promises to the former minister, the official wanted to stay and the head of government preferred to let go of his hand, perhaps thinking about the damage it could cause to his presidential campaign.
The precedent did not go down well with a sector of the Cabinet. Especially because hours before opening the exit door, Larreta announced a historic drop in crime in the City and even today has as a slogan to manage the "safest district in Latin America."
The cases of Acuña and Quirós have that point in common: they are highly valued ministries and used as an example for the national projection of the head of government. In Education, the hallmark is the opening of schools during the pandemic; in Health, the management of Covid in general.
Did Larreta also punish these officials who function by lowering their candidacies? Nor. As for the Minister of Education, a pure larretista, maintains the oiled link with the head of government and he himself proposed her as an eventual vice president of Buenos Aires. Jorge Macri or Lousteau?
As for Quiros, the secretive minister preferred to keep confidential what he spoke with Larreta in the last hours, but in his team there was some disappointment with the outcome of the nomination. They believe, at one point, that the head of government used the doctor only to annoy Mauricio Macri. And he lost.
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