It took former President Mauricio Macri ten years to transform his party, the Pro, into an alternative to Kirchnerism; Less than 24 hours was enough to destroy it. While Patricia Bullrich, its candidate who was defeated last Sunday in the first round with 24% of the vote, announced her support for the ultra Javier Milei, the pro movement exploded. The expansive wave also reached Together for Change, the coalition that integrates Macrismo, at least for now, along with the centuries-old Radical Civic Union (UCR) and other centrist parties such as former MP Elisa Carrió’s Civic Coalition. The pro-doves felt betrayed and the radicals warned that they would not abide by a decision made “unilaterally and without consultation”. Bullrich and Macri’s support for Milei was agreed during a tripartite and secret meeting at midnight on Tuesday. “While hawks and doves were fighting, a crazy bird appeared,” summarized a senator who was part of the coalition. The “crazy bird” is Milei.
Javier Milei plunged into Argentine politics two years ago and was ready to destroy everything. He picked up a chainsaw and shouted, “The caste is afraid,” and angrily attacked what he called the old politics “bullshit.” [ladrona] and murders.” The prevailing Kirchnerism is “the worst thing that happened to Argentina,” the radicals are “liar-cheaters,” the left is “shitty leftists,” and Bullrich is a “heavy bomb thrower” who “killed children in kindergarten” in the 1970s. When he spoke about Macri, he called him “lukewarm,” the representative of a “well-bred Kirchnerism” that had ruined the country like the rest of the “political caste.”
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By shouting “Long live freedom, damn it!” Milei burned all sorts of bridges during the election campaign. But on Monday, after she came second – behind Massa – in the first round of voting with 30% of the vote, an accelerated reconstruction process began. He called for a “blank list” of the grievances he voiced during the election campaign and urged Together for Change to join a large front to “destroy the gang of criminals” that he reads as Kirchnerism. “It would be irresponsible not to forgive,” he said. And Bullrich and Macri have forgiven him. The two main leaders of Pro, the largest party in the Together for Change alliance, met secretly with the Ultra, which had insulted them for months, and, without notifying the rest of the coalition, agreed to support them in the election campaign for the to support the second round.
Bullrich justified his vote for Milei with a sentence from the liberator José de San Martín: “When the country is in danger, everything is permitted except not defending it.” The “danger” is “populist Kirchnerism,” which is “for the “Argentine decadence” is responsible. Milei, Macri and Bullrich signed a law pledging to respect some basic democratic principles that the libertarian questioned. This includes no progress on the legalization of guns or the sale of organs and no abolition of public education and health care. Dollarization of the economy, Milei’s workhorse for his constituents, is not mentioned in the document.
Patricia Bullrich concluding her campaign with Mauricio Macri in Lomas de Zamora on October 19th. Marcos Brindicci (Getty Images)
Bullrich’s announcement had the devastating effect everyone expected. Within the Pro, it revealed the hidden divide that has separated hawks and doves for months. The head of government of the city of Buenos Aires, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, is one of the moderates. After losing to Bullrich in the party’s internal race, he said he was “surprised” to learn of the midnight meeting with the Ultras. “Milei is on the fringes of democracy and his ideas are dangerous. Massa is the re-election of Kirchnerist populism. The third alternative is to work to keep Together for Change as strong as possible so that it is an alternative,” he said at a press conference on Wednesday evening. “We owe ourselves some self-criticism about the way we function and decide, because that’s how it went for us,” he added, referring to Sunday’s defeat.
Rodríguez Larreta insisted on the need to hold together the coalition that has been the alternative to Kirchnerist Peronism since 2015, although he did not clarify whether this means leaving Macri and Bullrich out. It becomes clearer with the other parties that make up Together for Change. The governor of Jujuy (north) and president of the UCR, Gerardo Morales, said Bullrich had “embarrassed” him and that Macri was “largely responsible for the defeat” in the election for a place in the second round. “This is what I wanted from the beginning, to screw up Together for Change,” he shot at the former president. Elisa Carrió, founder of the Civic Coalition, was equally direct: “Macri always wanted to be with Milei.” For both, the former president and Bullrich are no longer part of the opposition coalition.
What “Together for Change” will look like in the future is still unknown. Rodríguez Larreta emerged as a guarantor of unity and gave some indications: power should be in the hands of the ten governors, out of 24 that Argentina has, who came from the ranks of the Pro and the UCR. These leaders are unwilling to stand up for Milei and need “Together for Change” to ensure the ability to govern their provinces. United in a single bloc, they will be stronger in their negotiations with the National Government, which from December 10th will be in the hands of Milei or the Peronist Massa. Whatever the outcome in the second round of the presidency, they will be in opposition.
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