The Victory Front (FpV) will face a tough, uphill battle at the ballots in Buenos Aires City after mayoral candidate Mariano Recalde finished in third place after mustering just 12.3 percent of the votes.
Key points to understand in this difficult scenario for Kirchnerism is not only the fact that Recalde mustered some 5.5 percentage points less than ECO contender Martín Lousteau, but that the contribution by Recalde’s rivals in the FpV primary to the total was too small.
Lousteau might consider his the 4.4 percent of the votes mustered by former ECO contenders Graciela Ocaña (4.1 percent) and Andrés Borthagaray (0.3 percent) — which on its face may bring his force closer to the 22.3 percent the coalition obtained in the primaries.
The Aerolíneas Argentinas CEO, for his part, may expect to receive the votes garnered by Gabriela Cerruti (2.2 percent), Aníbal Ibarra (two percent), Carlos Heller (1.5 percent), Gustavo López (0.4 percent), Víctor Ramos (0.2 percent) and Carlos Oviedo (0.1 percent) — that’s a total 6.4 percentage points that may led to the combined 18.7 percent mustered by all FpV candidates last Sunday.
Moreover, progressive voters who may be considered close to Kirchnerism such as Pablo Ferreyra’s ALBA coalition (endorsed by the Communist Party and by City legislator and presidential hopeful Jorge Taiana) only received 0.4 percent of preferences. Other options, such as attracting former voters for centre-left economist Claudio Lozano or the leftist parties that didn’t pass the 1.5 percent threshold needed to participate in the general elections, looks like scrapping for crumbs.
So where else to look for votes in order to reach a runoff?
Yesterday, Recalde gave a hint, saying they will try to get votes from those who voted for PRO Senator Gabriela Michetti and against PRO mayoral hopeful Horacio Rodríguez Larreta — and lost.
Kirchnerite leaders, Recalde said, will try to attract “those who bet for Michetti’s bid believing they were voting for change.”
In this context, he attacked ECO and PRO for being “two faces of the same political project,” stressing that it was hard for its leaders to sell the idea that they are opposed to each other since “they share a nationwide deal.”
The party’s strategy for July, he said, would be to repeat the same ideas — “but in greater depth.”
His proposal will be to improve public health, public education and improve transport in the district.
“It was a new stage for the Victory Front, where the first challenge were the PASO primaries where seven candidates faced each other — and, naturally, the first step was to win the internal election,” the Aerolíneas Argentinas CEO said. “The second step will be to ‘renew’ our candidacy for the general election. There’s still time to convince porteños.”
Source: Buenos Aires Herald