Who wins and who loses with a possible merger of the PRO and La Libertad Avanza?
It is the most recurring question asked in Congress since Javier Milei opted for plan B of
opening the game to Mauricio Macri after his timid agreement with the
non-K governors failed after the fall of the Omnibus Law in Deputies, then 40 days of round trips.
"For now everything remains to be seen," said an experienced Macri legislator, while the internal protests in both spaces are gaining ground and threatening the leaders' plans.
"
The fine print still needs to be defined
because we don't know if it is an agreement for the Executive or if it is also for the Legislature," an official representative responded to
Clarín
's query .
Although no progress has yet been made in the merger project, the protagonists are beginning to anticipate positions.
The ultra-mileists and the conciliators prefer to keep Martín Menem in the presidency of Deputies, a position that may be part of the negotiation between Milei and Macri, who from the moment he supported the libertarian in the runoff wanted Cristian Ritondo at the head of the Low camera.
"If Ritondo is president of the Chamber, he could fall badly in the block. And there could be casualties in LLA,
it is not something that can happen immediately
, but everything is defined by accomplished facts," warned one of the President's faithful.
From the other sector of the ruling party, which has a certain disagreement with the Riojan, they also support Menem at the head of the Chamber, at least until December, and they have already added that they would accept his departure if he is assigned a relevant position within the Executive.
Ritondo already rejected the possibility of being the president of a possible interbloc, which was the proposal of the libertarians, nominating Oscar Zago for the vice presidency to close one of the legislative circles.
The internal PRO begins to raise temperature
But Ritondo's recent statements highlighting that the PRO has "its own party identity"
did not bring calm to the waters of the party founded by Mauricio Macri
, since the deputies who respond to Horacio Rodríguez Larreta are angry with both pure Macriism and Patricia Bullrich.
The Larretistas assure that "Cristian already said that he is not going to be president of a possible interbloc" and Diego Santilli, who was mentioned for the Executive, told them that
"he did not receive any call from the Government
. "
But there are a dozen deputies who remain aligned with Rodríguez Larreta who are upset because they want to remove the former head of government from the party orbit and are closely watching how the bloc's authorities move.
On the list are Alvaro González, Silvia Lospennato and María Eugenia Vidal, among those deputies who since December conditioned the unity of the bloc on there being no co-government.
This sector blames Patricia Bullrich for "keeping the faith of the converts up", while at the same time they reproach her for appropriating the votes of the PRO.
"As she and Luis Petri are part of the cabinet, they believe that the PRO has the obligation to be in the Government," she concluded.
Ritondo tried to put a cold shoulder to the internal tension, lowered the tone of the discussion to guarantee the unity of the bench and warned that the conversation for an agreement with the ruling party has not yet begun, since first the new authorities of the party must be defined. party and Macri wants to preside over it again.
What unites the hawks and doves today is the unrest over what happened with the Omnibus Law, because of the effort they dedicated to the legislative battle and because the ruling party decided to lower it.
There is agreement that it was a mistake to drop the law, when there was the option of going to an interim period in the session.
To make matters worse, they warn that libertarians cannot even form a commission to revalidate the DNU.
Beyond that, a Larretism source told this newspaper that "there is no will to divide the bloc."
"If the conditions are burdensome in such a way that they leave out a sector of the PRO, we don't break up, they throw us out," he pointed out.
Libertarians with their sights set on 2027
In La Libertad Avanza,
opinions are divided
and an agreement with the PRO leaves more than one deputy in an uncomfortable situation who, after the libertarian wave that Milei generated, is already working to gain a foothold in his territory and give greater political volume to a force which is in the process of formation.
A sector of libertarians wants to agree with the PRO after the experience of the Omnibus Law and they dismiss the possibility that any of the deputies will drop out.
"No one wants to be left out of the ruling party," reflected a deputy.
Carlos D'Alessandro, one of the few who criticized some of Milei's actions, seeks to strengthen the relationship with Ritondo, Santilli and the radicals.
This week he also met with Bullrich to analyze the possibility of strengthening the legislative alliance.
The libertarians closest to Zago want to articulate with other spaces to add strength to LLA.
The central objective is to have more than 86 deputies.
But there are electoral interests that are at stake with an agreement with the PRO.
In this situation is Juliana Santillán, who aspires to fight for the mayor of Mar del Plata against Guillermo Montenegro, of the PRO.
There is also the case of outsider César Treffinger, who competed with Ignacio Torres for the governorship of Chubut and is critical of the current governor.
And Lisandro Almirón from Corrientes works in his province to dethrone the radical Gustavo Váldes.
The outlook is not simple for the ruling party because there are already deputies who are analyzing the possibility of a monobloc like Marcela Pagano, who
conditioned her continuity on the bench to a change in leadership
.
The journalist is at odds with Zago, but she is not the only one.
Almirón also argued with the block chief and there are several noted on the list.
Another of those who could think about leaving the bloc is the deputy
Pablo Ansaloni
.
The representative of the rural laborers' union was one of those who stood up when Macri gave his support to Milei in the runoff.
"They called us to fight the mafias and I do not agree with Macri, our limit is Macri, I told Karina and Javier," declared the deputy at that time, who prefers to keep a low profile.