Since the people of Buenos Aires elected head of government, there was only one contest that was defined without the need for a ballot. It was in 2019, when Horacio Rodríguez Larreta won re-election. The bar, very high, was set by the same Constitution that confirmed the autonomy of the City: 50 percent plus one of the votes are needed to win in the first round. In the camp of Jorge Macrithe best positioned candidate of the four competing this Sunday, recognize that it will be “very difficult” reach that magic number. Although Together for Change has achieved 55 percent two months ago, the internal party with the radical Martin Lousteau –who contributed a little less than half of the points– was played “thoroughly and with a lot of low blow”, they say, so they discount an inevitable flight of votes. In any case, they do not rule out reaching the goal. From the opposite side, whoever waits with anticipation for the possibility of a head-to-head match in November is Leandro Santoro. The Peronist candidate dedicated himself throughout the campaign to highlighting his origins in the UCR, with the idea of capturing precisely the wishes that his former co-religionist left along the way. In third and fourth place, according to the order left by the PASO, the libertarian appears Ramiro Marrawho will not have the drag of the ballot Javier Mileyy Vanina Biassiby the FIT.
In the Buenos Aires election this Sunday – the eighth since 1996 – The PRO puts 16 consecutive years of management to play. Despite this inevitable wear and tear, the commitment was not to a leadership renewal. Quite the opposite: Mauricio Macri’s will was imposed that it was his cousin Jorge – until two years ago Vicente López’s mayor – who competed for the succession. Everything remained within the margins of his leadership, in a kind of autocracy of the family name. Rodríguez Larreta, who never approved that move, sneakily bet on Lousteau’s candidacy, but lost. The radical senator, however, contributed no less than 48.6 percent of the total votes of the PASO of Together for Change, a flow whose fate will define the final result. The UCR-Evolución campaign was also critical of the yellow party’s way of governing. He highlighted, among other things, his lack of “humanity” and his disdain for the public. They are all condiments that in the run-up generate a certain expectation in Peronism of having the chance to extend the competition in a second round.
Santoro, from the start, launched himself to conquer that vacant electorate. “Are you radical, you voted for Lousteau and you don’t want Macri’s cousin to govern?” Vote for Santoro”, read the slogan, printed with white letters on a red background (the historical colors of the UCR) that was seen on several street posters. In the Union for the City candidate’s bunker they hope that These efforts are enough to improve August’s performance by between 4 and 5 points. With that objective, he also added ten proposals from the Lousteau campaign to his own program.
The Unión por la Ciudad candidate also sought to take advantage of the wear and tear of the PRO’s efforts, with two premises: the terrible frequency and the general poor condition of the subway network (he proposed extending it to 24 hours) and the “negotiated” with the sale of public lands, which were a constant during the last eight years, with legal cases involved. The most emblematic cases were Costa Salguero and the former Edificio del Plata, protagonists of the last campaign spot. The incorporation of Bárbara Rossen, an architect committed to the defense of Buenos Aires public lands, aimed to add to this problem, which also has its consequences in the real estate market and the problem of rents in the City.
The City, rearguard of JxC?
Close to Jorge Macri they say that They retain at least “seven out of ten votes” from Lousteau. “Whether he is more or less radical, he is a voter of Together for Change. Why should we think that they will go to Kirchnerism?” they say.
Lousteau, for his part, stayed out of most of the campaign, only appearing for a photo at the end. It was this Thursday, during a tour with Jorge Macri through the downtown. In the PRO they bill you that this support should have been given before, and that it was not given because “some ask for more than necessary.” The reference is to the hypothetical cabinet that Macri would put together starting in December, that since PASO is on the table in the negotiations with radicalism.
But there is no place for everyone. “Jorge is going to be broad, as he always is, but everyone asks for too much and too soon. So any name that has circulated is nothing more than operations,” they say close to the candidate. It is that from that hypothetical cabinet Several former ministers of Cambiemos until 2019 and other leaders who were out of competition in the PASO will take part. at the national level (one of those who sounds is Diego Santilli), in a sort of rearguard for several leaders who will seek to resettle in public service in case Patricia Bullrich does not manage to reach La Rosada.
Confident, Jorge Macri closed his campaign in Recoleta, with another walk, which had his cousin Mauricio as a guest and ironically concluded in the Plaza “Vicente López” from that same neighborhood.
Marra, without Milei and without speech
The libertarian candidate in the City had a campaign full of reprehensible statements. He started by saying that it was preferable to “show pornography” in schools rather than give the contents of the ESI. Then he denied himself and even apologized, but those types of statements – like when he said that Paka Paka showed the Spanish of the conquest “as the bad guys” – cost him dearly. A curiosity about Marra’s campaign is that, in addition, it was difficult for him to focus on Buenos Aires issues: they almost did not enter his agenda. When more than one journalist asked him about his proposals, he sent them to review a PDF with his management program.
The far-right had to fight for several months to establish itself, given that he had a high degree of ignorance beforehand and does not have the support of Javier Milei’s ballot given the Buenos Aires voting system.
Marra He closed his campaign in a particular way: he broadcast 12 hours without interruptions from his Yotube account, BreackPoint, in which he made a collection to buy a motorcycle from a Rappi delivery man. Throughout the broadcast there was speculation about Milei’s presence, but there was no case: she never appeared.
The presidential candidate of the Libertarians, curiously, chose Santoro to rant against the radicals from his own closing of the campaign, a meager favor for his own candidate. He rated Santoro “sinister character” and “unpresentable of radical origin”. “I am going to hold Javier Milei responsible for what could happen to me or my family on the street,” the Unión por la Ciudad candidate replied.
Changes to the voting system
Unlike the PASO, Buenos Aires residents will vote in the general elections with paper ballots. After the several irregularities detected with the use of the Single Electronic Ballot (BUE) in August, the judge with electoral jurisdiction in CABA, María Servini, determined that it was necessary to return to the traditional system. The change radically modifies the composition of the darkroom compared to the last time. There will be no voting machines for Head of Government, and the table authorities will once again be outside the classroom. As the election continues to be “split and concurrent”, there will be two different bodies of ballots: one with the national categories and another with the local ones. Voters must place both ballots in the same envelope, which they will then deposit in a single ballot box. According to the judge, the election with the machines had been “the most problematic and conflictive elections in the last 30 years in this City.”
