In the midst of the crisis that Jujuy is experiencing after the violent attack on the provincial Legislature, Governor Gerardo Morales encouraged on Thursday the version that he will be the running mate of Horacio Rodríguez Larreta to compete against Patricia Bullrich, the other presidential candidate of Together for Change, facing the PASO on August 13.
"At any moment we are going to make an announcement of integration," Morales told Clarín, in an interview conducted in his office in the Cultural City, a complex located about 10 minutes from the center of the provincial capital.
While attending this newspaper, the governor received insistent calls to his cell phone that suggested that they were on the side of the head of the Buenos Aires Government, who presented Miguel Angel Pichetto, as the candidate to head the list of national deputies for the province of Buenos Aires, seconded by Silvia Lospennato.
What is voted on and when.
National ElectionsProvincialElectionsWhere do I vote?Survey Newsletter
Argentina chooses 2023
Morales spoke of the role Cristina Kirchner would play after the October elections and made it clear that they will not seek an agreement with Javier Milei if there is a runoff. "You can't negotiate anything with him," said the head of the UCR National Committee.
How do you see yourself in the Senate?
I'm not going to be a candidate for senator. I'm going to run for president.
As president of the Senate?
- We do not rule it out.
Are there conversations with Rodriguez Larreta?
- We're on it.
- And in what percentage is the possibility that you accompany Rodríguez Larreta?
(Laughs). At any time we will make an integration announcement.
Gerardo Morales and his possible return to the Senate. Photo: Fernando de la Orden / Special Envoy
How do you see the ruling party in the face of the presidential elections?
I see it badly with this attitude towards Jujuy. If this is going to be the attitude when he loses the election, an anti-democratic, coup-plotting attitude, it seems to me that it will be a setback for the country. It seems to me that they have to return to the democratic channel. They are going to leave the government and Together for Change is going to govern and it seems to me that encouraging violence is not the way. There are sectors that it is impossible to summon that are with the story and cultivate the culture of violence. When Together for Change governs, one of the priorities is to restore order in people's lives, to do so with the constitution and the law in hand, but being firm against the violent.
- What role can Cristina Kirchner play after the elections?
-I don't know. I believe that in this election, the defeat of Kirchnerism has to be forceful to mark the end of a cycle that has hurt the country.
-But that was already raised in 2015, why do you think it did not materialize?
Because they returned to the government. We didn't have the timing to maintain power. The challenge is to win the election, govern, solve the country's problems and be able to maintain that line of action in a second term because four years are not enough. These are processes that take time. I hope that happens in this election and that we can do things right to give continuity to another cultural model for the country.
Gerardo Morales in an interview with Clarín. Photo: Fernando de la Orden / Special Envoy
- And what changed between the proposal you present now and that of 2015?
We have more experience, we have a government program, a stronger radicalism territorially and all that has changed. The PRO already has experience in governing and we also have it. In addition, the actors we are turning around as candidates have management experience and we know what's going on.
Why couldn't the electoral agreement with Juan Schiaretti be closed?
- Not to jeopardize the situation in Córdoba, so as not to generate more tension in Together for Change. We managed, however, the incorporation of José Luis Espert, who was denied by a sector. We had to achieve that with a lot of push and Horacio has had a lot to do with that and his ability to control the national council of the PRO because otherwise we would shrink. I always believe that we must maintain dialogue with sectors of Peronism that are not linked to Kirchnerism such as Miguel Angel Pichetto who is going to be our first national deputy in the province of Buenos Aires.
Are you concerned about the variety of thoughts that may exist in Together for Change?
- It will not have so many varieties, there are two. One more linked to the thinking of Milei and another more in the center with a vocation for dialogue, with an attitude of firmness to govern, so that the next government has the necessary muscles to guarantee governability and that we can transform the country.
What role should Facundo Manes play in this scenario that is lived in Together for Change?
Manes would have to be part of a space with which he has more ideological identity, which is the one we are expressing together with Lilita Carrió, Miguel Pichetto, Horacio, and a majority sector of radicalism. He has to define how he participates.
-What characteristics stand out about Rodríguez Larreta and Patricia Bullrich?
-Horacio is a leader who expresses capacity and management experience. It also has the wisdom to seek the path of dialogue, it is firm for decision-making and, therefore, we have coincidences. Patricia is also a good leader of our space, a good candidate, but the problem is in the ideological affinities and her closeness to Milei or Milei's thoughts that have nothing to do with normal democracy.
-And in a possible runoff, can you imagine closing an agreement with Javier Milei?
-Oh, no. You can't negotiate anything with him. Rather, I see seeking agreements with more rational sectors of Peronism, provincial parties that seek a sensible country, not with the schizophrenic and crazy proposals that Milei has, which, in addition, impossible to fulfill and execute, are very extreme and do not serve Argentina.
See also