The government responded harshly to the request of the 13 governors for a single candidate of the Frente de Todos and thus avoid going to the Simultaneous and Mandatory Open Primaries with several presidential candidates.
Agustín Rossi, cabinet chief and one of those who launched his candidacy, described as "authoritarian" the request of the provincial leaders. "One thing is 'we consider that a unity list would be best,' another thing is to raise demands," he said in a dialogue with El Destape.
Rossi said there is currently no "consensus candidate" because none of the leaders in the race measure between 18 or 25 points in the polls.
"If there is no one who is in that circumstance, or in that electoral attitude, it seems to me that the reasonable thing would be, contrary to the path that the governors are asking for, is to put oneself in another place that I would advise if I were governor: to guarantee a participation so that all those who want to participate in the PASO can do so," he emphasized.
The chief minister agreed with the governors that it is necessary to maintain the unity of the front and was ironic when he proposed: "List of unity with whom, with the invisible candidate? Nobody knows who the candidate of the unity list or the names is, it is difficult a situation of these characteristics," he said.
"Trying to impose a consensus list is a historic mistake that will have to be addressed. There are no conditions and consensus is not imposed by blood and fire, they are generated when an equation appears that generates the necessary consensus," he said.
In this way, Rossi stood before the request of the governors of Peronism and allied forces, who demanded a "list of unity and consensus" with an "electoral strategy that overcomes the situation and of a federal nature" and launched a Political Action Commission aimed at developing a "government plan" for the next period.
Meanwhile, Anibal Fernandez, Minister of Security and electoral representative of Daniel Scioli, insisted that the candidate of the Frente de Todos must emerge from the PASO and ironized about the assembly of the lists.
"How are you going to choose by throwing a coin up? Ignoring rigged polls as we are seeing every day because they show profound unrealities? No," he said wryly on CNN radio.
For the national official, in the current situation in which the ruling party finds itself, "there is nothing left but to resolve it through voting."
Fernandez's statements come amid the insistence of Sergio Massa's Renewal Front that there be no internal competition in the PASO and a sector of Kirchnerism that bets on a call from Cristina Kirchner for the Brazilian ambassador to lower his candidacy.
So far, Scioli remains firm in his decision to compete in the PASO as a presidential candidate and with the Minister of Social Development, Victoria Tolosa Paz, as his candidate for the province of Buenos Aires.
When asked about the polls that give Scioli as uncompetitive for the next election, Minister Fernández responded defiantly: "Let them say what they want, let's compete and at the end of the day the beans are counted."
The national official promotes the Brazilian ambassador in the media and stands against the leaders of La Cámpora, whom he accused of "never working and threw stones at them from the other side."
Days before the closing of alliances, which will define the presidential candidates, the governors, La Cámpora and officials close to President Alberto Fernández continue to face the dilemma of finding a consensus candidate or going to the PASO with several candidates for the presidency.
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