The story began on May 23 in the evening, when a group of 24 Buenos Aires leaders of the PRO resigned their places on the party’s provincial Board of Directors and isolated its head, Senator Daniela Reich, who had come to office in 2022, after the departure of Jorge Macri to compete in the City. Without the necessary internal quorum, since three-thirds of the members abandoned their seats, Reich could not continue exercising the presidency and her position became headless.
The move hid a strong move launched by Macri, with the endorsement of Mauricio Macri and the support of almost all sectors of the national PRO, including a sector of Larretism, for example. With the exception of Patricia Bullrich, who days before had appeared with Reich, her husband Diego Valenzuela and the libertarian shipowner Sebastián Pareja at the launch of Apertura Republicana, the space from which the Minister of Security seeks to bring together mileism with the so-called ” liberals of the PRO”.
From the bullrichism they did not take long to talk about a “coup d’état” on the part of the Macrismo to call elections and place Cristian Ritondo as president of the party in the province of Buenos Aires. What followed was along those lines: a formal call to present lists, which will finally be just one and will be made official in a few hours. Ritondo is going from candidate to president, with the mayor of Vicente López Soledad Martínez as Vice and a large group of Buenos Aires community leaders accompanying them.
Neither Bullrich nor Valenzuela nor Reich will present candidates, in a refusal to validate a process that they consider “flawed.” Rejection, however, will not stop Ritondo from moving forward. Although the election date was set for August, it is a fact that the head of the block of the national Chamber of Deputies will be the new provincial head of the party, with the approval of Macri, the total rejection of Bullrich and the endorsement of almost everyone. the weighty leaders of the national PRO.
Ritondo’s list: who is there and who is not
The list that Cristian Ritondo will lead and that will be the one that will actually end up winning the presidency of the Buenos Aires PRO will be composed, in addition to the deputy and the mayor of Vicente López, Soledad Martinezby representatives of different internal lines of the PRO, Buenos Aires leaders who respond to Mauricio Macri, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, Diego Santilli, Guillermo Montenegro and Néstor Grindetti.
Thus, there will be Pablo Petrecca, mayor of Junín and candidate for Second Vice President, María José Gentile, mayor of 9 de Julio, Marcelo Matzkin, mayor of Zárate, Jorge Etcheverry, mayor of Lobos, Buenos Aires legislators Alejandro Rabinovich, Agustín Forchieri, Cristian Gribaudo, Adrián Urreli and Matías Ranzini, deputy Martín Yeza and the former mayor of La Plata, Julio Garro.
Among the ones who They do not support Ritondo’s candidacy For example, the mayor of San Isidro appears, Ramon Lanus, close to Patricia Bullrich. Sources close to the northern Buenos Aires municipality assured that Ritondo offered him a position within the board of directors but that the mayor rejected it because he did not want to validate the election process, after Reich’s forced departure. In the ritondismo they say that Lanús “was never” in consideration and they blurted out: “If they want to compete, they should make a list.”
Nor will there be another mayor, although it is a case as sung as that of Diego Valenzuela, communal chief of Tres de Febrero and Reich’s husband. In the provincial council, many of the big actors of the PRO play with their own dolphins, taking into account that they already participate in the national leadership of the party, which was renewed at the beginning of the year and has Mauricio Macri as president.
The background of the national fight
The short circuits in the province of Buenos Aires have their direct background in the national dispute of the main representatives of the PRO, Mauricio Macri and Patricia Bullrich. Faced with each other since last year, both agreed that Macri be the president of the national Board of Directors and Bullrich the head of the Assembly, which will meet on July 4. That pact seems to be at risk, considering that less than two weeks before the scheduled date, the crowd did not receive any invitation to the event.
In the midst of this mess that mixes the national with the provincial, emerges the recent tension generated by the decision of the Minister of Security to dismiss her deputy, Vicente Ventura Barreiro, a close friend of Ritondo, from the portfolio and his dolphin within the ministry. Bullrich not only expelled him, but also reported him to the Anti-Corruption Office for interfering in a bidding process in the Federal Penitentiary Service (SPF). In rhytondism they do not forgive what they define as a low blow.
At the same time, the partisan internal dispute occurs at a time when Bullrich seems to be determined to look sideways at the issue, focused on the daily management of the ministry. While the Provincial lists were closing, she was traveling in Corrientes, looking for clues about the disappearance of Loan, the child who, it is believed, could have been a victim of trafficking and sent to Paraguay.
Some signs that show the unrest between macristas and bullrichistas They have been happening in recent weeks. For example, the vice president of the party, Damián Arabia, national deputy and key bishop for Bullrich, was not invited to the board of directors meeting in which it was decided to empty Reich within the Buenos Aires PRO and move forward with an idea that Mauricio Macri dropped as soon as he assumed national leadership: that the PRO branches in each province be managed by leaders he closely trusted.
Another example of this is that on the PRO website there is a profile of Macri and that of two of his three vice presidents: Soledad Martínez, mayor of Vicente López, and Facundo Pérez Carletti from Santiago, two leaders who are active in Macri’s party. From Arabia, Macri’s other second in the party, but allied with Bullrich, only his profile photo is visible.
