‘My only limit is Macri,’ Proyecto Sur senator tells the Herald
Senator Fernando “Pino” Solanas tacitly confirmed yesterday the ongoing electoral negotiations with Renewal Front leader Sergio Massa, saying his only limit for potential alliances was PRO party leader Mauricio Macri.
“We try to keep dialogue with all political forces and our political limit is Macri as he embodies corruption and neo-liberalism in Argentina,” Solanas told the Herald.
Asked about the possibility of running for BA City Mayor within Massa’s Renewal Front, the Proyecto Sur leader explained his party was having conversations with “almost” — he stressed — all political forces about major issues that the party considers central.
Officially, Solanas said, his main political alliance was the one between his political force and the small Authentic Socialist Party (PSA) headed by Mario Mazzitelli.
As versions of a surprise deal with the former Tigre mayor continue to appear in the media, Solanas justified a potential deal suggesting Massa was following an anti-corruption agenda advanced by progressive forces.
“I am the leader of a political force which is open to working with other forces holding up the same principles and the same flags against corruption and neoconservatism,” said Solanas, which is still technically part of the Broad Front-UNEN non-Peronist coalition.
Over the last few days, the Proyecto Sur senator said he and Massa shared “similar views” on a number of issues and that he would meet today with leaders of his centre-left party to discuss potential political alliances for this year’s elections.
‘We have criticized them in the past’
For her part, though confirming Proyecto Sur’s ongoing negotiations with other political forces, Proyecto Sur national lawmaker Alcira Argumedo dismissed any possibility of Solanas becoming Massa’s official candidate in BA City.
“Pino is not going to subordinate to an agreement with Massa. We have criticized several Front Renewal projects in the past,” Argumedo stated in dialogue with the Herald.
While acknowledging that Broad Front-UNEN lost strength following the agreement between Civic Coalition lawmaker Elisa Carrió and BA City mayor Mauricio Macri to run against each other in the August presidential primaries, the centre-left lawmaker stressed that Proyecto Sur was “talking” with many political forces around three central issues — hydrocarbons, commercial deals with China and the overhaul of the Intelligence services.
“We have been talking, for instance, with (Massa ally) Felipe Solá, as we have known each other for years. He was even an extra in one of Pino’s movies,” Argumedo said jokingly. “But we have criticized (Solá) for being responsible for the boost of soybean planting and the devastation of native forests.”
Unlike Solanas, Argumedo dismissed outright any chances of an electoral deal between his ally and the former Cabinet chief.“Pino is not going to run against Massa in the national primaries. And if Solanas runs in the Buenos Aires’s City mayor race, he will not be as Massa’s candidate either,” said Argumedo, who in 2011 failed to reach the final presidential race under the Proyecto Sur ticket.
However, she left the door open for a potential alliance if Massa’s Renewal Front decided to openly support the senator’s candidacy.
Doubts about the party’s future
In December, Massa surprised many by praising PRO Senator Gabriela Michetti, who had fallen out with Macri over her decision to run for the mayorship.
After economist Tomás Bullat died in a car crash in late January, his Renewal Front has not been able to find a solid BA mayor candidate.
Sources close to the former Tigre mayor reportedly acknowledged negotiations with Proyecto Sur to secure electoral deals “in six or seven provinces” as part of their national electoral front.
But analysts warned about the future of this odd couple, stressing that while the Renewal Front favoured pro-business policies, Proyecto Sur was more close to centre-left Peronist ideals of state intervention.
In 2013, Solanas had dismissed Massa as a “lighter” version of Kirchnerism. But late last year went as far as saying that Massa, Scioli and Macri were “the candidates of the establishment.”Days later, his former ally Carrió left UNEN and agreed to face PRO’s Macri in a presidential primary, blessing economist Martín Lousteau (also part of the non-Peronist front) to try and win the City from PRO.
Yesterday, Radical (UCR) party lawmaker Julio Cobos said the non-Peronist front should revise its strategy in case Massa and Solanas sign a deal. Asked about the effect of that possible alliance, the former vice-president considered that everything pointed toward an electoral deal between UCR progressive elements and the Broad Progressive Front (FAP) which in 2011 proposed the presidential candidacy of former Santa Fe governor Hermes Binner.
Although a final decision has yet to be made by UCR leaders during the March 14 meeting of the party’s national convention, Cobos stressed that Radical leaders should make “quick definitions” about the direction of the party. “People want certainty, and they don’t want more confusion,” he told Nacional Rock.
The deadline to register electoral alliances in the City is this coming Wednesday, while the registration period for all local candidates is set to close in a few weeks.
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