La Libertad Avanza and PRO will run together in both the local and national elections in Buenos Aires Province, top officials have confirmed.
The news comes after a meeting at the Casa Rosada between PRO representatives Cristian Ritondo and Diego Santilli and Presidential Chief-of-Staff Karina Milei, along with other representatives from La Libertad Avanza.
“There is a strong will to move forward together in Buenos Aires Province. The exact mechanism will come later – that’s secondary — but we are going to move ahead for both the September and October elections,” said Ritondo, PRO’s head in the region, after leaving Government House on Monday.
The parties have yet to decide whether to form a formal alliance or coalition, though the desire for unity against Peronism in the nation’s key battleground is clear.
In recent days, President Javier Milei had signalled his intention to forge an agreement with PRO in the region, suggesting the alliance should be “violet” – i.e. his – in colour. However, that detail is still under discussion.
“We’ll see what structure we adopt in September and October. In the province, we have to act together in both the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, we’re looking at everything,” Ritondo said.
He said the “structure might be different” for the provincial elections on September 7 and the subsequent national vote on October 26.
Milei’s party also confirmed the alignment through La Libertad Avanza’s key man in the region, Sebastián Pareja. “We’ve made progress on a political agreement that we’ve actually been working on for quite some time. Moving forward means exploring all possibilities and figuring out how to offer the best alternative to end populism in the province,” said Pareja, who said Milei’s party has no intention of “wiping out PRO.”
One of the big questions left open is what will happen to the Unión Cívica Radical (UCR), PRO’s former coalition allies.
In the last general election, the centrist UCR backed Patricia Bullrich’s presidential candidacy. Formerly of PRO, she has now jumped ship to La Libertad Avanza.
– TIMES/PERFIL
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