Milei triples libertarian caucus in Senate, winning 6 of 8 races

President Javier Milei’s party will swell its Senate caucus as from December 10 after prevailing in six of the eight districts renewing representatives in the upper house.

Milei’s La Libertad Avanza surpassed expectations and its representation will rise from seven seats to 20. The libertarians will thus come close to safeguarding presidential vetoes (with 25 members needed) while coming within 17 of quorum, something they could reach with the aid of the senators open to dialogue. 

The Peronists with 15 seats at stake in last Sunday's election but could only hold nine. The intercaucus, headed by José Mayans, will suffer a haemorrhage that slims it down from 34 to 28 members.

The districts with seats up for renewal were Salta, Neuquén, Río Negro, Tierra del Fuego, Chaco, Santiago del Estero, Entre Ríos and Buenos Aires City.

From the end of the year, Governors Rolando Figueroa (Neuquén) and Gustavo Sáenz (Salta) will each have his own upper house representative after both finishing second behind the libertarians in their respective provinces.

In Neuquén, the Alianza La Libertad Avanza sent Nadia Márquez and the Radical Pablo Cervi to the Senate while La Neuquinidad backed by Figueroa placed Julieta Carroza. 

In “La Linda” (Salta), the senators-elect are Emilia Orozco and Gonzalo Guzmán for the LLA and former Energy secretary Flavia Royón for Primero los Salteños under Sáenz.

Meanwhile outgoing Santiago del Estero Governor Gerardo Zamora managed to hang onto all three of his province’s senators, including himself at the top of the Frente Cívico list, seconded by Elia Moreno, while Senator José Emilio Neder running for the Justicialist Party picked up the minority seat in an already customary ploy.

Tierra del Fuego was one of the surprises of the day with the libertarian duo Agustín Coto and Belén Montes de Oca winning out. Yhe remaining minority seat remained in the hands of Kirchnerite Senator Cándida López.

Kirchnerism managed to squeeze ahead in Río Negro with Martín Soria and Ana Marks, while La Libertad Avanza was left with the minority seat, which will be occupied by current deputy Lorena Villaverde, who is seeking promotion to the Senate, like Márquez and Cervi. Between the two lists they pushed into third place the candidates of Governor Alberto Weretilneck, who was left without representation.

The alliance between the Unión Cívica Radical (UCR) and LLA bore fruit in Chaco with Juan Cruz Godoy and current lieutenant-governor Silvana Schneider set to occupy the two majority seats. The third will go to former three-term governor and ex-senator Jorge Capitanich, who competed under the Fuerza Patria label.

The Chaco formula was repeated in Entre Ríos Province but this time between La Libertad Avanza and PRO under Governor Rogelio Frigerio. This combonation installed Joaquín Benegas Lynch and Romina Almeida while the minority seats went to Adan Bahl of Fuerza Patria.

In Buenos Aires City there was no room for surprises and the Patricia Bullrich-Agustín Monteverde duo swept the field with over 50 percent of the vote. The third seat went to current Peronist senator Mariano Recalde, also running under the Fuerza Patria label.

– TIMES/NA