Global Courant
—Go and tell them, you know who. They have to define what they do. I’m here to play,” Sergio Massa told Gerardo Zamora and Raúl Jalil. It was Thursday afternoon. The news was all over the media. Eduardo De Pedro president, Juan Manzur vice president. The official formula, finally, seemed closed.
On behalf of their peers, the governors, Zamora from Santiago and Jalil from Catamarca insisted on changing it and demanded it from Massa. “No one closes this. They are going to condemn us all to lose”, they affirmed. Zamora and Jalil remained online with the league of PJ leaders. Both came from speaking with Alberto Fernández.
The President had made some opening gesture that, until then, he had not exhibited so as not to damage the candidacy of Daniel Scioli, whom he always encouraged under his breath. But, now, if Fernández did not dislike something, it was collaborating to get Wado out of the way. He usually tells that he was never able to completely repair himself from that rebellion that his own minister started when, after the electoral defeat in 2021, he caused a wave of resignations, which never materialized but which marked his management forever.
“We are still alive,” they said in Massa’s environment. They never stopped saying it. That is why no leader of his space took out even a tweet to celebrate the supposed brand new pairing. “Today they tweet, tomorrow it will be our turn,” Massa told them. A source from the Renovation Front said yesterday that everything was part of an operation. That he knew the outcome 72 hours before. Hard to prove.
After noon on Thursday, when the first doubts about the confirmation of the formula arose, De Pedro and Manzur rushed the movements and recorded the announcement at the Art Media Complex in La Chacarita. The minister’s collaborators told the accredited journalists at the Casa Rosada to reinforce the installation work: “We will publish it shortly,” they promised.
The spot lasted a handful of seconds and had been recorded to be broadcast on TikTok. It didn’t even have a horizontal version to show on TV. “Come, join me, Juan,” Wado tells him in the filming. The two greet each other, walk, laugh and talk about life in an informal way. It never came to light. “It is better that they have burned that video, because we would be a laughing stock if it came to light,” warned a reference from La Cámpora.
In the afternoon, De Pedro had two meetings, one at the Argentine Industrial Union and another at the truckers headquarters. When leaving the UIA they asked him if he was already a candidate. He sowed doubts, but after a while -yes, after a while- he uploaded a video of him to his networks in which he presented himself as a candidate, although without mentioning Manzur. Cristina had given her consent for the dissemination. The internal noise had made her distance herself. “My candidate is Wado, but if they want, I’m willing to change the vice,” she said. Later, in his Senate office, he received Jalil and Zamora.
—Cristina, in my province Wado does not measure anything. I have it at 5 points. Seven, put him… Nobody knows him. what do we do? Zamora told him.
The vice plan began to founder. “The same thing happens to several of us. How are we going to do it?” Jalil asked. The vice president knew they weren’t exaggerating. The La Rioja president, Ricardo Quintela, in whom she trusts a lot, had told her similar things. The PJ governors stayed connected through a WhatsApp group. Cristina suffered the impact. The governors were targeting one of her favorite sons-in-law.
After years of handling power with an iron hand, the head of the Unión por la Patria was forced to give in. Sunset comes for everyone. Even her own collaborators pushed her to review her position. “If we lower it to Wado we are going to make a big deal. But it can be worse if we don’t lower it. They are threatening us to run Scioli’s ballot as well, ”she heard.
A battle was being waged on Twitter between Kirchner militants for and against the Wado-Manzur formula. The governor-elect of Tucumán, Osvaldo Jaldo, had finished encouraging the debate when he published a tweet that everyone considered “official.” Gossips say that it pretended to be a welcome to the candidates but that, in truth, it was a thrust against Manzur, whom some pointed to as responsible for the initial leak of the news.
Others saw massismo as part of a maneuver to prevent the Wado-Manzur formula from being announced when it was too late to make changes. One of those who supported this theory was Manzur himself. The man from Tigrón and the man from Tucuman knew how to be good friends (Manzur visited him in his offices when Christianity was destroying him in public) but today they are not going through the best moment. As soon as he became Alberto’s chief of staff, Manzur revealed that he had a presidential plan in motion. He had a run-in with Massa, who saw him as an adversary. “Sergio’s problem is that nothing is enough for him. He wants to be president, but of the United States, ”Manzur laughed at political gatherings.
With Manzur wounded and Wado reeling from the pressure of the governors, after seeing Cristina, Zamora and Jalil spoke again with Alberto and Massa. “Sergio is ready to be a candidate. We need you to bring Scioli down ”, they transmitted to the president. “If I put the vice we can advance. It depends on Cristina, ”he replied. The Deputy Chief of Staff and friend of Alberto, Juan Manuel Olmos, participated in the conversations. Olmos promoted a communication between the President and his vice president. Did he make it?
They say they agreed to call each other, but they didn’t. Alberto did call Agustín Rossi. “You are going to be Sergio’s vice,” he told him. Massa was meeting at the Ministry of Economy and received the news with joy. There were cheers. And Massa embraced with his advisers. When night fell he went to the Senate to see Cristina, with whom he had dined the night before.
The conversation lasted less than half an hour. Clarín gave the scoop while both were still chatting. When leaving, Massa found out and feared that Cristina would be angry. She went to Cecilia Moreau’s office. The president of the Chamber of Deputies took a photo of both of them, with the TV screens behind them already showing the meeting that had taken place until minutes ago in the vice president’s office. The idea was to question the summit or, directly, deny it. It didn’t work. The official announcement must have been rushed. At 8:49 p.m. the tweet came out from the Unión por la Patria account with the new duo.
In the opposition it caused confusion. Javier Milei, who was excited about being the candidate with the most votes because he has no competition in his strength, could now be relegated by Massa. For Together for Change, where the confrontation between Horacio Rodríguez Larreta and Patricia Bullrich looms even, it is an additional complication. They will have to show unity on the day of the primaries and install the idea that whoever loses will work for the winner. Individually, Larreta and Bullrich could fight for third and fourth place.
The advantage for opponents of Massa’s candidacy could perhaps be in discursive terms. The minister accumulates a record of inflation: he came to the ministry with a year-on-year rise of 75% and since then it has risen to 120%. We will have to see how he stops in the presidential debate, for example, when he has to defend Alberto’s management. Or own. Or when they ask him where his promise to sweep the gnocchi from La Cámpora was.
In certain sectors of Together for Change, the fantasy of leaving Kirchnerism out of the ballot is maintained. Does Massa’s application change anything? Mauricio Macri, Massa’s most critical opponent, thinks not. He doesn’t stop rooting for Milei, even though his bet is Bullrich.
The dialogue with the libertarian was never interrupted. The former president makes covert efforts so that Milei reaches the second round with the winner of Together for Change. Macri and Milei agree that the economic debacle has no return, that it can only get worse, and that Massa will be trapped.
Very recently, Macri suggested to Milei that she not get involved in unnecessary controversies. He warned her of operations against him and gave her advice on how to get rid of them fast. Milei thanked him for the gesture and applied his strategy. Maybe they will meet face to face soon.
