With two names confirmed, the debate begins in the Frente de Todos to define the candidacy for the head of the government of Buenos Aires

Historical bastion of the PRO 15 years ago, the definition of the candidacies of the In front of all in the City of Buenos Aires appears slowly while four months remain for the closing of the lists. However, leaders interested in the Buenos Aires contest kicked off this week ahead of the next campaign, registering as potential candidates for the seat of government in Buenos Aires.

The Minister of Sports and Tourism of the Nation, Matias Lammens, confirmed a few days ago his desire to run for mayor again. It would be a new electoral adventure, after the massive victory that Horacio Rodríguez Larreta won in 2019 with 55.9% of the vote against 35.07% obtained by the Frente de Todos.

“I register to compete in the City“, admitted for the first time the former vice-president of San Lorenzo in an interview with Radio 10. “Like at the national level, in the City, we have to make the electorate fall in love again. We have an electorate that is loyal to us and votes for us, but we have to seduce those who we interviewed in 2019 and now they feel that we have not met their expectations for different reasons”, underlined the fan of the “cuervo”.

Lammens is clear that his electoral chances will hinge on his performance as a public servant. For this reason, he will concentrate for the time being on the day-to-day activities of his ministerial portfolio. “Everybody knows that management pays off politically and electoral”, they say from the minister’s entourage. They trust the reach of the program Pre trip, the number of tourist activities and the expectation of more foreign tourists arriving in the country. It would be an electoral capital with relative social recognition to display for the campaign.

The sports manager has a weak point. It is not unanimous within the Frente de Todos. It is generally criticized, mainly, by the sector of the Justicialista Party of Buenos Aires (PJ) linked to Victor Santa Maria, head of the Single Union of Rental and Horizontal Building Workers (Suterh). In any case, Lammens wants to be on the lists of the City and, to this end, he wants to contribute to the consolidation of Frente de Todos unity, avoiding any controversy that blurs the tranquility in space.

Another name in the dance is that of the national deputy of the city of Buenos Aires, Gisele Marziotta, that in 2019 she was precisely the running mate of Matías Lammens, as a candidate for the deputy head of the government of Buenos Aires. In the 2021 legislative elections, he joins the Frente de Todos list, led by Leandro Santoro, and thus renews the seat he has held since January 2020, completing the mandate of Daniel Filmus. To MPs, she is Second Vice-Chair of the Education Committee and is also a member of the Committees for Communications and Information Technology, Senior Citizens, Disability, Freedom of Expression, Mercosur and internal security.

Among the names registered for the election campaign is also that of Elisabeth Gomez Alcorta, former Minister of Women, Gender and National Diversity. This week, the feminist reference and “popular left” began its campaign tours through different districts of the City. On February 15, “Eli” visited the neighborhood of Padre Mugica, where he visited Urbana TV studios, work cooperatives and community spaces.

Human rights lawyer and former defender of Tupac Amaru leader Milagro Sala, Gómez Alcorta has had greater national visibility for her management in the first ministerial portfolio created under the impetus of the feminist and LGBTIQ+ movement. Although she is behind other possible Frente de Todos candidates, she was one of the government spokespersons during the 2020 legislative debate which approved the law on voluntary termination of pregnancy (IVE) and has implemented measures on the agenda of the executive power in gender, such as the implementation of the “Micaela Law”, the “Registered” program or the adoption of the non-binary DNI, among others.

“I want to govern the city of Buenos Aires. A group of organizations and colleagues asked me to lead this fight and I accepted. Our space has proposals, equipment and social constructions that we want to put at the service of transforming this city into a key of solidarity, equality and feminism”, defined Gómez Alcorta. The candidacy is supported by a group of political and social organizations under the name of “we move», a space integrated by the holder of the CTA-T of the City, Daniel “Tano” Catalanothe leader of the Subte union, Roberto “Beto” Pianelli and the leader of the deputy La Dignidad and former official of the Ministry of Social Development, Raphael Klejzeramong others.

In October last year, Gómez Alcorta resigned criticizing the government after an operation that expelled Mapuche women in Villa Mascardi, in the province of Río Negro. Internally, the activist supports the leadership of Vice President Cristina Kirchner. “We want Cristina to run for presidentbut of course we will understand and respect the definition it takes”, assured the ex-minister. “Alberto and Massa express important parts of the FDT and I consider it legitimate that they want to be candidates , but our space doesn’t feel represented by what they offer,” he said.

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Another of the names that could become a candidate for the head of the government of Buenos Aires is the national deputy Leandro Santoro. The radical leader is the reference with the best positive image of the Frente de Todos in the neighborhood, according to a survey published in February by the consultancy D’Alessio IROL/Bernstein. In 2021, with the support of Alberto Fernández, Santoro arrives at the top of the official list and loses in the ballot of María Eugenia Vidal, who obtains 47% against the 24.8% collected by the Frente de Todos. This election revealed that in just two years, the ruling coalition lost 11 points in the votes of Buenos Aires which flew into the hands of the Trotskyist left, led by the ticket of Myriam Bregman, and the libertarian list of Javier Milei.

Always ready to compete, Santoro is careful not to venture or confirm his electoral claims. However, think about the next election campaign. In February, and at the invitation of the German Green Party, he asked to leave his post as a member of Congress to travel to Germany, France and Spain to learn about his experiences in city management, where he met mayors like Ana Hidalgo. , from Paris. The objective of going abroad is to collaborate on a government program for the one who is ultimately a FdT candidate.

The truth is that the CABA discussion is still light years away from the intensity at the national level, where the ruling party holed up in the PJ headquarters on Calle Matheu 130 last Thursday to trace the difficult electoral web which today is divided between the directions of Alberto Fernandez, Cristina Kirchner there Sergio Massa. For its part, the PJ of Buenos Aires has continued these months with a critical and revisionist agenda of 15 years of PRO management, and which had as a milestone a summit at the end of last year at the Faculty of Social Sciences ( FSOC) from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), where all sectors of the coalition were represented.

So far, the organic channels of the PJ are working, but -instead of applications- they are dedicated to the publication of a book that reflects the diagnosis on the management of Buenos Aires. An important Frenteto leader has foreseen that in March and April there will be definitions regarding the candidates. What happens to the rules of the game in the district, and whether or not there will be a STEP between the various ballots, will depend on the internal party in power at the national level. And who will have a decisive role in the strategy is the national senator of La Cámpora, Mariano Recalde. The current holder of the PJ of Buenos Aires talks with all the groups of the pro-government coalition.

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