In the logic of political construction of Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, two words are repeated as karma in the campaign: "silver" and "management". The head of government and his team presume that these two pillars will support an eventual triumph in the presidential internal against Patricia Bullrich. That is why some observers are rattled by the sudden impulse to now incorporate Juan Schiaretti as an electoral partner. The governor of Córdoba was one of the key allies that the Frente de Todos used to extract "money" from Larreta and affect his "management." Hence the question: Is the Buenos Aires mayor audacity or desperation?
It is worth remembering the process to understand the depth of the damage. At the end of June 2020, when in Argentina there was only talk of coronavirus and Alberto Fernández y Larreta enjoyed unprecedented popularity, Cristina Kirchner anticipated her first electoral move thinking about 2023. Clarín told it then. The vice president received polls that showed the head of government with very high numbers in the province of Buenos Aires and that is why she asked the president to stop treating him as a "friend."
Fernandez more than delivered, with a pool move. In an unexpected press conference, together with pro-government mayors but also from the PRO, he announced in September of that year that he would take funds from the City to give them to Governor Axel Kicillof, then overwhelmed by a salary claim from the Buenos Aires Police that he could not resolve.
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It was a bomb that detonated the tacit partnership between Fernández and Larreta, and that Kirchnerism decided to play to the extreme, presenting a project in the National Congress. Without a majority in Deputies, there appeared the helping hand of Schiaretti. The Government managed to approve the anti-Larreta initiative with the right numbers (129 in favor), thanks to four deputies who responded to the governor of Córdoba.
Almost all the media spoke then of "surprising" support of the Cordoban. But there was a close and perhaps more controversial precedent, not for damage to Larreta but for the support of an investigated businessman K. In July of that year, the four deputies who responded to the Cordovan president had endorsed with their vote a questioned moratorium in favor of Cristóbal López.
No money for management
As for the damage to the Buenos Aires administration due to the cut, it was immediate and palpable, at a rate of about 400 million pesos per day that it stopped automatically receiving from the Nation. The case generated a presentation in the Supreme Court, which already had an amparo in favor of the Buenos Aires district but that the Government has not yet implemented. The substantive issue remains to be resolved.
Even then, the need to address the pandemic had forced the City to rebuild its budget. The pruning of funds from the Nation put most of the ministries of CABA, except for Health, in survival mode. This was noticed and still is noticeable in the streets: the pace of works and the quality of services dropped significantly; In parallel, of course, to a generalized deterioration of the social situation, which contributed to a new (and less glamorous) Buenos Aires landscape.
It was not even enough with the measure that Larreta opposed and that also went against his campaign axes: to compensate for the cut in co-participation, he increased a tax on porteños through credit card expenses.
Such a wound merited questions from the press to the head of government in the last hours. How is it that he wants the governor who helped harm the porteños as a partner? In electoral mode, Larreta tried to get rid of the theory of the other cheek: in politics, the exercise of forgetting can help to find a solution that overcomes it.
It is true that since he whitewashed his desires to be president, the head of government paid "the theory of 70%". It goes something like this: to make the profound reforms that the country needs, it will take support that exceeds Together for Change, and that is why we must add allies.
There the name of Schiaretti reappears with some logic. But in the original plan, at least the one that Larreta himself transmitted in private talks, the sum of these external partners had to be given after election. At most, prior to the runoff. That is why the rush is striking. They didn't even close the alliances.
The two hypotheses
Two pieces of information/hypotheses. One, closer to the anti-Larreta party, maintains that the move is a desperate blow from the head of government, worried about a possible fall against Bullrich in the internal one. The other, from Larretismo, affirms that they are seeking to shake Juntos, because with the hawks it would not be enough to defeat the Frente de Todos and Javier Milei and there is a risk of being left out of the second round.
From both sides there is a coincidence: calendar in hand, they glimpse complicated the entry of Schiaretti to Together in the face of the PASO of August 13. There should be a formalization before the closing of alliances, on June 14, and a ratification in the registration of candidacies, on June 24. With a detail: the 25th is the election in Córdoba, where Juntos and the Cordoban PJ that answers to the governor are rivals.
A high source who follows the negotiation hour by hour, provides a name: "Behind this is (Guillermo) Seita, the consultant who works for Horacio and the Gringo. It may be that he seeks to help Pelado, but above all Schiaretti. With this he can help the governor win Córdoba, for the quilombo he generates in Juntos, and incidentally gives him a dignified exit at the national level."
The turns of politics: this is the same consultant who in 2019 sponsored an armed outside the crack with Schiaretti, Sergio Massa, Juan Manuel Urtubey and Miguel Angel Pichetto. After lending his offices as a presentation photo, he saw the idea fail when Massa went with Cristina and Pichetto with Macri.
With different actors, they rehearse the same play. Will there be a premiere this time?
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