After turning into one of the big surprises in Sunday’s City primaries when he beat out the Victory Front’s Mariano Recalde by more than five percentage points, ECO mayoral hopeful Martín Lousteau is now looking toward a runoff with PRO party contender Horacio Rodríguez Larreta.
It will be no easy task, by any means.
Lousteau received 17.83 percent of all votes in the local primaries against 28.41 percent obtained by Rodríguez Larreta, Buenos Aires City Mayor Mauricio Macri’s favourite to succeed him at City Hall. And while the economist is likely to receive 4.4 percent more of votes at the July 5 City elections (those who on Sunday went to former ECO mayoral hopefuls Graciela Ocaña and Andrés Borthagaray) Macri’s Cabinet chief is also likely to obtain a major portion of the 18.9 percent garnered by her former rival, Senator Gabriela Michetti.
“We believe people want a runoff debate between political forces who are not fighting to death,” Lousteau told Radio Mitre. “People don’t want false choices.”
Porteños want “a real, serious discussion — but a respectful dialogue,” said the former Economy minister.
When reminded that there were not too many differences between Rodríguez Larreta, now the official PRO party contender, and himself, Lousteau called on Argentines to “discuss nuances.”
“We have different nuances of opinion. They are more like the People’s Party (PP) and I’m more like the Spanish Socialist party (the PSOE),” the economist argued, comparing both forces to pro-establishment parties.
Echoing some of his earliercampaign slogans, the ECO contender stressed the ruling party has produced a number of major public works.
“Once they announce public works they’re able to finish them on time, that’s something (Planning Minister Julio) De Vido can’t even dream about doing. That’s a huge difference between the PRO administration and the national government.”
However, he said, the Macri administration “has long-abandoned its public health service, its education” and that inequality in the district increased during the PRO party leader’s terms in office.
Carrió, Sanz: now go after Michetti’s votes
Civic Coalition (CC) firebrand lawmaker Elisa Carrió, who has openly supported Lousteau’s — and Michetti’s — bid for City Hall, yesterday said she was sure that the ECO contender would reach a runoff against Rodríguez Larreta.
“We may have a surprise in July if Lousteau wins. I believe the curly one will win,” Carrió said in reference to the 44-year-old, a former ally of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
The CC lawmaker, who months ago surprised many by signing a deal with the centre-right PRO party, which she had criticized in the past, celebrated the results of the local primary.
“I’m happy for all of them — for the autonomy Gabriela (Michetti) has achieved (after daring to face Macri’s favourite contender) in this wide coalition, for having Macri consolidate his power in the capital… and watch out, because according to current figures we’re in a runoff scenario,” Carrió told Radio Mitre.
The lawmaker said she enjoyed an excellent relationship with Macri and UCR leader Ernesto Sanz, a conservative senator from Mendoza who has long pushed for a deal with Macri’s political force.
“We’re doing a pretty good job working in silence,” said Carrió.
It was Sanz, precisely, who placed the largest bets in Lousteau’s candidacy, saying his vote intention would increase expontentially during the next few months.
“He’ll grow enormously” at the polls, Sanz told Radio 10. “We’ll see a runoff between Lousteau and Rodríguez Larreta.”
The next elections will be about two models, the UCR senator insisted — the Macri administration and the model sponsored by Lousteau which, Sanz argued, had a huge “social component.”
Lousteau’s strategy will be to steal votes from Michetti’s former voters, he said.
“His bid may grow if he seeks votes from all sectors — from those who were left out of the race, like Michetti, but also from Rodríguez Larreta, because people voting for a certain candidate in the primary do not always pick the same candidate at the general elections.”
Lousteau’s second: pollsters did not believe in us
Meanwhile, CC-ARI national lawmaker Fernando Sánchez, who yesterday became Lousteau’s deputy mayor hopeful, said he was not surprised by the results of the election.
“Ten days ago, Poliarquía (a consultancy company) said Lousteau was on his way to mustering 10 percentage points,” said Sánchez, who compared the survey with the 17.83 percent finally obtained by the former Kirchnerite official.
Source: Buenos Aires Herald