PRO now pro-libertarian in City too

The alliance between the ruling La Libertad Avanza and centre-right PRO already sealed in Buenos Aires Province is now also a reality in this city after numerous obstacles were cleared last Tuesday.

Until then it was considered that the open hostility between PRO Buenos Aires City Mayor Jorge Macri and the government’s chief political operator, presidential chief-of-staff Karina Milei (more than shared by her brother, President Javier Milei), would block any agreement, especially since Karina Milei was registering an inflexibility tantamount to demanding unconditional surrender as far as the alliance’s label, party colours and candidates were concerned.

But she finally relaxed her conditions sufficiently to give PRO enough favourable slots on the list to retain two of its three outgoing deputies while barring it from any say in the senatorial duo. 

This was enough for Mayor Macri, who had been toying with the idea of reviving the extinct Juntos por el Cambio coalition banner by teaming up with its ex-partners the UCR Radicals and Coalición Cívica, as well as other parties. But the results of last May’s City midterm elections, when La Libertad Avanza almost doubled the vote of locally ruling PRO, left him little room for manoeuvre.

Definition of the names still has until next weekend’s deadline but Security Minister Patricia Bullrich (who jumped ship from PRO only three months ago) at the top of the senatorial slate has already been confirmed by Cabinet Chief Guillermo Francos. 

The two PRO names for the La Libertad Avanza lower house list might well be the sitting deputies Sabrina Ajmechet and Fernando Iglesias (both fierce government cheerleaders) with the third incumbent former Buenos Aires Province PRO governor María Eugenia Vidal (who has voted against the government more than once) ruling herself out, since both enjoy Bullrich’s favour. 

Mayor Macri and his cousin ex-president Mauricio Macri may well insist on at least one of the alliance’s two senatorial candidates and 12 lower house candidates coming from their camp.

– TIMES