Argentina’s opposition seeks to re-launch itself from the City of Buenos Aires

The tensions arising from the judicial accusation against Cristina Fernández de Kirchner are encouraging the internal opposition in the City of Buenos Aires, its electoral stronghold.

The head of government Horacio Rodríguez Larreta leads the polls among the “porteños” (Buenos Aires residents), followed by the physician Facundo Manes and the economist Javier Milei.

The judicial accusation against the Argentine Vice-President, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, and the tensions with the Government of the City of Buenos Aires due to the demonstrations in her support in the Recoleta neighborhood of Buenos Aires have brought together the opposition, which has its political stronghold in the federal capital.

A recent electoral analysis by the consulting firm Tendencias -with 1,218 respondents- indicates that one year before the national elections, several referents of the right-wing reinforce their positive image in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (CABA).

According to the study, if the elections were held now, the coalition Juntos por el Cambio (Together for Change) -led by former President Mauricio Macri (2015-2019) and made up by the parties Propuesta Republicana (Pro), Unión Cívica Radical, Coalición Cívica ARI and Peronismo Republicano- would reach a 40.2% voting intention.

The ruling Frente de Todos -formed in 2019 around the figures of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, President Alberto Fernández, and Minister of Economy Sergio Massa- would not exceed 27% among the porteño voters.

La Libertad Avanza, a coalition led by economist and congressman Javier Milei, is in third place.

The survey was carried out in the first fortnight of August, so it did not take into account the recent political tensions in the country triggered by the accusation of the prosecutor Diego Luciani against Vice-President Cristina Fernández for the so-called ‘road case’, which investigates alleged diversion of funds for works in the province of Santa Cruz.

The vice-president is facing a 12-year sentence and perpetual political disqualification as alleged head of an illicit association.

However, the survey did follow Massa’s appointment on August 4 as the new ‘super-minister’ of Economy and showed that one of the main concerns for the porteños is inflation, which exceeded 71% year-on-year at July values.

Among the voters of the Frente de Todos in CABA, the figure with more followers is that of Cristina Fernández, with 53% of the support. Massa appears behind with 14%.

Who are the opposition figures gaining more prominence in the political scenario?

HORACIO RODRIGUEZ LARRETA

The current Head of Government of CABA, Horacio Rodriguez Larreta, appears more consolidated in the polls among the referents of “Juntos por el Cambio” (Together for Change). The Tendencias survey puts him first in a positive image with 38.9%.

Economist and politician Rodríguez Larreta took office in 2015 and was reelected in 2019.

The controversy unleashed by the fences placed on Saturday, August 26, around Cristina Kirchner’s residence in the downtown neighborhood of Recoleta and the police repression against the followers who gathered to support her since the announcement of the request for conviction of the prosecutor Luciani, has put the Head of Government of Buenos Aires in the spotlight.

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner compared the actions of Rodriguez Larreta at the head of the City Police with the media and judicial persecution of the Argentine Prosecutor’s Office and asked, in a meeting with senators and deputies, to rethink the autonomy of the City.

“Mr. Larreta’s logic is the same logic of the judicial party. For the Macristas: care and protection. For the Peronists: fences, the infantry of the City Police and even sticks, tear gas and pepper spray,” said the vice president in a publication she shared on Twitter.

In 1998, Rodríguez Larreta founded the NGO Grupo Sophia, dedicated to training young people to assume public responsibilities, but it was not until 2002 that he became actively involved in the political sphere.

Rodríguez Larreta founded together with Macri in 2003 the party Compromiso para el Cambio (Commitment for Change), which in 2005 was renamed Propuesta Republicana (Republican Proposal). Since then, he served as Pro’s campaign manager and was Chief of Cabinet when Macri was head of the Buenos Aires Government.

In 2015, when Macri took office as president, Rodríguez Larreta chose to remain in the local sphere, elected head of the Buenos Aires Government.

FACUNDO MANES

The clinical neurologist, neuroscientist, and current national deputy for the Unión Cívica Radical -part of the Juntos coalition in the 2021 legislative elections- reached a 29.6% positive image among the porteños, according to Tendencias.

Manes was the creator of the Institute of Cognitive Neurology (INECO) and is currently the honorary president of the foundation of that institution.

Also, between 2014 and 2018, he was rector of the private Buenos Aires university Favaloro and is director of the Neurosciences Institute of the Favaloro Foundation.

With an extensive academic career and hundreds of scientific publications to his credit, Manes also serves as a researcher at the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) and the Australian Research Council.

The current deputy, who has defined himself as a radical, has been linked to the political sphere since his youth with the leadership of the student center of the Escuela Normal José de San Martín de Salto (north of Buenos Aires).

In 2016 he was an honorary advisor to the governor of the province of Buenos Aires, María Eugenia Vidal, and in 2021, he ran as a pre-candidate for national deputy for the province of Buenos Aires, a position he obtained.

JAVIER MILEI

The economist, national deputy, and leader of the political space La Libertad Avanza maintains 25.7% of support, according to the Tendencias poll.

The politician, referenced by specialists as a defender of the “libertarian right,” presented his candidacy for the presidency of Argentina in April 2022, being the first to make his aspirations to the Casa Rosada official.

With more than one million followers on Instagram and around 600,000 on Twitter, Milei cultivates a controversial and contentious style from which he defends the carrying of weapons, the dollarization of the economy and has praised former Minister of Economy Domingo Cavallo, associated with the ‘corralito’ that precipitated the social outbreak in the country at the end of 2001.

Milei has worked as an economics professor, has academic and journalistic works and several books to his credit, and maintains a high profile with a strong presence in the Argentine media.

In 2020 he ran as a candidate for national deputy for CABA on behalf of Frente Despertar, which would form, in 2021, the Avanza Libertad party, achieving his goal after obtaining 17.04% of the votes.

With information from Sputnik