Five years after being appointed Interior Minister and 19 months after President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner ordered him to include the country’s transportation system into his list of duties under the Interior and Transport Ministry, Florencio Randazzo insisted on saying he would run for president in the 2015 general elections.
“If I can make improvements to public transport, I can play any game (in the upcoming elections),” Randazzo told Radio América.
The official made it clear, though, that he would be running under the Victory Front (FpV) ticket and pledged loyalty to the head of state.
“There are still two years before the elections, now we need to support the President,” Randazzo said.
In mid 2012 the leader from the Buenos Aires province district of Chivilcoy found himself in charge of transport, months after the Once train accident that left 51 people dead. His area was definitely a hot potato no one wanted to hold: former transport secretaries Ricardo Jaime and Juan Pablo Schiavi had just been charged with abuse of authority and breach of duties of a public official for not properly monitoring the Sarmiento branch line.
“We’ve decided to improve railway transport and I have taken up that responsibility,” said Randazzo at that time.
Earlier last year, when asked whether he would run as a lawmaker candidate in the midterms, he replied: “I’m just the candidate to drive public transport through.”
But now, less than two years before the end of Fernández de Kirchner’s term, Randazzo said people will see “great changes this year” regarding public transport with the arrival of new carriages for the Sarmiento, Mitre and San Martín train lines and dusted off his plans in politics.
On Sunday, Kirchnerite Senator Aníbal Fernández surprised many by saying he did not rule out running as presidential candidate in 2015.
Source: Buenos Aires Herald