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After the elections in the PRO, Macri and Bullrich begin to discuss an electoral confluence with Milei - Infobae
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Tras las elecciones en el PRO, Macri y Bullrich empiezan a discutir una confluencia electoral con Milei
El ex presidente viajó a Europa y retomará la agenda doméstica la semana que viene. La ministra se enfoca en la gestión de seguridad sin descuidar el armado político. El dirigente bullrichista que ya propuso un acuerdo para 2025
www.infobae.com
March 22, 2024
The former president traveled to Europe and will resume the domestic agenda next week. The minister focuses on security management without neglecting the political framework. The bullrichista leader who has already proposed an agreement for 2025
By Robertino Sanchez Flecha
Javier Milei, Mauricio Macri and Patricia Bullrich
“It is certain that we will make an electoral alliance with La Libertad Avanza and the parties that express a profound change, obviously we are not going to make an alliance with Martín Lousteau .” That phrase already has the force of a sentence and was said by a PRO leader. They were statements by Juan Pablo Arenaza , Buenos Aires legislator and political operator linked to Patricia Bullrich . Because of the trust they have, his word is almost the voice of the Minister of Security herself. The official has been working for weeks with the goal that the PRO converges electorally with Javier Milei's space in view of the 2025 elections. Although in politics a year is an eternity, this type of construction, of two independent spaces and with stories different, they are sinuous processes that involve arduous negotiations and amalgamating egos.
The PRO elected Mauricio Macri as its new president on Tuesday . A relaunch stage begins , where the survival of the party is at stake. The 2023 electoral slap, which left Together for Change in third position, outside the runoff, put the PRO's potential in check. Milei absorbed a good part of the electoral flow that JxC had, especially the hardest sector embodied with Bullrich and Macrismo. Why, then, could the PRO be an electoral alternative for the 2025 midterms?
These are questions that wander in the opposition. In Macri's frequent dialogues with Milei it emerges that the PRO acts in practice as an official party : it offers support in Congress for all the initiatives of the Casa Rosada and moves in tandem with La Libertad Avanza. But there is no merge or deadlock. The former president seeks for his party to be close to the libertarians but with enough autonomy to not lose its identity. It won't be easy.
Mauricio Macri in Rosario, at a meeting of the Libertad Foundation
Bullrich, on the other hand, is one of the most politically prominent ministers in the Government and her trusted leaders move like libertarians - practically. The official managed to push internal power to Macri to gain footing in the PRO . It is something that some Macri leaders do not fully elucidate. Why did Bullrich stay within the PRO if she acts in practice as a supporter of Milei and La Libertad Avanza? Being in her party gives her a place from which she can build her political framework , at the same time that she works so that this construction converges with the Government. It is also a way to prevent Macri from completely dominating a space that may have the power to harm the Head of State.
Macri and Bullrich have personal differences. The relationship was felt after the former presidential candidate entered the Milei Government. The macristas read it as their own move. The dialogue suffered and required the dialogue of leaders who frequent both to bring positions closer together within the PRO. Federico Angelini, Fernando De Andreis, Juan Pablo Arenaza, Sebastián García De Luca - until his departure from the Government in February -, Darío Nieto, Pablo Walter are some of the political operators who built bridges between Macri and Bullrich.
The former president had to give up some spaces of power in the PRO because Bullrich had gathered the endorsements to present his own candidacy and challenge Macri. They had even surveyed Diego Valenzuela , mayor of Tres de Febrero, to head that ballot. They knew they were losing to Macrismo. Why the pressure, then? Strategic negotiation decision . Faced with the tug-of-war, Macri decided not to undergo a tedious and exhausting electoral process, says Bullrich - which today has the support of Milei - and, at the same time, he prevented the media from making headlines that Macri's government had not achieved a unity list to lead the match.
Javier Milei and Patricia Bullrich (AP Photo/Nicolás Aguilera, File)
The electoral debate towards 2025
The discussion was settled and, automatically, the debate was opened for 2025. The PRO has little chance if it appears alone or far from the libertarians in the next elections. The confluence with the Milei space is almost inevitable. The debate is the terms and conditions of that “electoral alliance,” as Arenaza called it.Meanwhile, Macri traveled to Europe yesterday , bound for Italy. He was invited to teach at the University of Bologna, as Infobae learned. He plans to be on that continent until the weekend. From now on, the former head of state will intersperse trips abroad with his political agenda in Argentina. Bullrich, for his part, focuses on the management of the Ministry of Security, with a high profile, although without neglecting the political framework.
Something that the Government does not ignore is that on a front with the PRO, La Libertad Avanza will gain territorial and electoral volume : this gives it the possibility of having a better harvest in a year that will renew half of the Chamber of Deputies and a third congressional. In the Casa Rosada they have 205 as their political horizon to take a leap in governability. If the macroeconomic numbers achieve a positive reception from the electorate, an alliance with the PRO can boost Milei's victory at the polls.
Javier Milei and his sister, Karina Milei, general secretary of the Presidency (Photo by Tomas Cuesta/Getty Images)
Anyway, the ball is now in Milei's hands . He is the President of the Nation and is not willing to give away the spotlight . Although he is not native to politics, he knows that power is exercised or lost . It is something that he already does: in his dialogue with Macri, the libertarian praises the PRO leader, listens to him, but at no time does he give space for any type of landing of PRO political cadres in his Cabinet.
He even listens to Macri's advice, but rarely puts it into practice. In Macrismo they believe that the veto comes from Karina Milei , Secretary General of the Presidency, and Nicolás Posse , Chief of Staff. The libertarian's sister takes maximum care of the presidential circle and applies distrust to anyone who is alien or defiant.
Meanwhile, Milei is also working on his own political set-up. Karina Milei supervises Eduardo Lule Menem in the creation of La Libertad Avanza as a national label. And she herself moves in that direction. On Tuesday she was in Córdoba with Martín Menem , head of the Chamber of Deputies, and Gabriel Bornoroni , pro-government deputies and libertarian reference from Córdoba.
The same thing happens in the province of Buenos Aires, the other key territory for any electoral campaign. There, Sebastián Pareja continues as a key reference. In the PRO, the one who moves with the desire to lead a candidacy for national deputy is Diego Santilli . He is a yellow legislator, he has a good image and a high level of knowledge. In addition, he must renew his bench in 2025.
The national deputies of the PRO meeting with Guillermo Francos, Minister of the Interior of the Nation, at Casa Rosada
But why would Milei cede such a prominent candidacy to the PRO? Why not opt for your own candidate, like José Luis Espert , for example, who must also renew his seat next year and has been politically active in Buenos Aires for three years? These are questions that will mark any attempt at an electoral front between La Libertad Avanza and the PRO.
An alternative that Omar de Marchi , Secretary of Parliamentary Relations of the Government, offered to Macri, in a meeting they had at the beginning of February, is the possibility of creating a confederation of parties . It is a different figure from the electoral alliance and little used in Argentina. The former president didn't think it was bad, although he didn't give it much importance.
The truth is that the PRO puts at stake in 2025 the renewal of 22 of its 37 seats in Deputies and two seats of the seven it has in the Chamber of Senators. In addition, it risks dozens of legislators in all the country's Legislatures and hundreds of councilors in thousands of municipalities. They are spaces of power that assign negotiation capacity and political potential to a party.
