Let it bend, but don’t break. That is the goal of Together for Change for the campaign that will lead the opposition to PASO. The danger is that the fierce battle to become candidates ends up blowing up the opposition coalition.
That’s what they warned Elisa Carrio before making the decision to return from retirement: “I am going to be a candidate,” she announced. And she argued with strange logic: “I’m going to do it to guarantee the unity of Juntos.” As if one more candidacy in addition to those that already exist (Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, Patricia Bullrich, María Eugenia Vidal, Facundo Manes, Gerardo Morales and the latent possibility that he may even join Mauricio Macri) could strengthen the fusion instead of continuing to weaken it. Macri himself is also concerned about the level of aggressiveness and usually talks to his interlocutors that the leaders must guarantee a campaign without cheap shots. Everyone agrees, but no one is entirely convinced that it can happen.
Rules. On August 14, once the PASOs have happened and the list of candidates has been narrowed down to one per coalition, the bickering will be over. The leaders will have to swallow the controversies that they have launched against their peers in the middle of the campaign to accompany the winner. But it will be a long time before that moment: a semester of tensions can be too much.
So that the opposition alliance does not break, some of its leaders work on a set of rules that expand the internal regulations, where the general guidelines are. A kind of electoral agreement, but to which not all have yet adhered. The visible faces of this compendium of standards are Gerardo Morales for the UCR and Elisa Carrió for the Civic Coalition.
The most relevant point that they demand of the PRO is that, unlike the management of Mauricio Macri, there be a government coalition, not only electoral and parliamentary. In other words, the parties that make up the space have real power in Casa Rosada.
There are other points that are still under debate. One of them is the idea of “cross formulas” to generate a system of counterweights in Juntos. If it came true, it would be another difference with respect to the 2015 election, where the PRO triumphed with Macri and Gabriela Michetti. In this way, the political parties will not suffer.
At the express request of Carrió, in the electoral agreement that there be transparency in the financing of the campaign. It is something that the leader of the Civic Coalition keeps awake and that causes disturbances in her work team in each election year, since they have to take extreme care of every detail. If a leader invites you from the inside, find out all about that candidate; if he travels in a private plane, that the owner has not been denounced by the former deputy. A difficult job.
The issue of financing is something that also worries former President Macri. In his case, due to the differences he notices between the two PRO applicants: Horacio Rodriguez Larreta, which has the City government as a launching pad; and Patricia Bullrich, who must resort to lunches and dinners with businessmen to gather the necessary contributions.
In fact, in the larretismo they protest in a low voice because of the gestures that the former president has with the head of the PRO in his desire to balance things. In any case, Macri is not only concerned with campaign contributions. In the visits that Larreta and Bullrich had to Cumelén, he repeated a premise: that the dispute be without Chicanas. In addition to being a candidate in a latent state, he wants to be the overseer of the contest.
The tension will also increase in radicalism. Neither Morales nor facundo manes they give in and aspire to the presidency. The man from Jujuy had proposed an internal one to define the candidacy of the centenary party, but they failed to agree on the terms. “We already assume that we will go to the PASO with more than one candidate,” they lament close to the governor. In the other corner there is also anger: “Gerardo’s problem is that you don’t know if he is speaking to you as a party leader or as a candidate. He mixes everything, ”they note close to the neuroscientist. Distrust reigns between the two.
Warlords. The analysis of the situation that Juntos por el Cambio is experiencing is similar in all the work groups. It is that Alberto Fernández did so badly in management that there are many who got into the presidential race. “We are full of caciques,” says one of the opposition shipowners, smiling. That also worries.
“Right now Together for Change is in difficulties. You have to look at leadership theory,” he said. miguel pichetto in an interview with TN days ago. And he added: “We have to have an important consolidated leadership. The leader and the proposal are the two great themes of the struggle for power”.
That demand also comes from the inside. It is because there is no definition, the armed opposition in the provinces are disorganized: in fact there are districts where Together for Change could break up and others where there is already a break (see box). “If there was a consolidated leadership at the national level, you could influence, help and order the provinces. If you have it open, gravitation is lost ”, Pichetto added in this regard.
With the excuse of “guaranteeing the unity” of Together for Change is that Carrió got into the electoral contest. “Lilita” announced in the first days of February that she decided to return from retirement and run so that there would not be “a debate to the death” in the opposition. “I do not intend to win,” she concluded later. A strange way to introduce yourself.
Of course, beyond the premature announcement, the leader of the Civic Coalition warned that the campaign will only begin in May. Other work teams estimate that the official race will begin in March, with the launching of the pre-candidates.
The danger of the internal becoming fierce is not only causing the implosion of the coalition, but also neglecting the true rival: the Front of All. “The Government cannot be underestimated”, he repeats himself in each of the meetings. Everyone agrees, but the tension causes Juntos’ intestinal fight to attract much of the attention.
Sanction. To avoid major conflicts, at the end of January the presidents of the parties that make up the opposition alliance signed an agreement at the PRO headquarters in Buenos Aires. The statement is entitled: “Coalition leaders who fail to comply with the resolution of the National Board that establishes the internal rules will be sanctioned.” The text concludes: “In case of non-compliance with the resolution that establishes the internal regulations of the National Board and national and provincial strategies, leaders who do not comply will be sanctioned and will not be able to use the acronym of Together for Change in alliances, collectors or slogans.
A week later, on February 6, at a new coalition meeting, it was decided to set up a political table to discuss the tensions that arose from the candidacies. The meeting was not exempt from chicanas: that the UCR allied with a senator K in Río Negro and that the PRO does not support Juntos in Neuquén, among others.
Days before, the larretista Florencia Arietto had crossed Bullrich in a television program. “Patricia asks to use the army and later, when there is a mountain of deaths, they will be sentenced for institutional violence. It doesn’t work like that, ”she said, before dealing with a sensitive issue for the PRO candidate:“ You cannot leave dead in all evictions like Maldonado in Cushamen and Nahuel in Mascardi ”. Bomb.
Bullrich responded, Arietto apologized, Fernando Iglesias insulted her privately and the tension escalated once more. It was just a sample of the friendly fire that can set the campaign on fire.
Last year there was a cross between Macri and Manes that caused concern. The former president said that Hipólito Yrigoyen had been a populist. Then the neuroscientist replied that the one who had done “institutional populism” was him. So the PRO accused radicalism of wanting to break Together and vice versa. A festival of incriminations.
In the opposition they trust the maturity of their leaders. But they are attentive to mark the limits so that the coalition does not explode in the campaign that begins. The premise is that friendly fire does not burn Together for Change.
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