Off-screen only | Face to face, Adorni asked Macri for help: "We need you... for Boca"
The unusual photo of Mauricio Macri and all-round presidential advisor Santiago Caputo captured most of the attention on Monday at the Golden Center complex, where the annual meeting of the Libertad Foundation was held.
But the dinner, which brought together several of the main players in national and Buenos Aires politics, gave rise to another picturesque image: that of the former president and leader of Pro with Manuel Adorni , presidential spokesman and first candidate for Buenos Aires legislator on the La Libertad Avanza list, in the midst of the neck-to-neck competition between the two for the center-right votes in the city.
Voices that heard the brief conversation reported a minimal, friendly exchange, but full of second interpretations, while Liberal deputy Alejandro Bongiovanni , representative of the foundation's so-called Young Group, gave his speech to those present.
“Mauricio, we need you… for Boca,” Adorni told Macri when he approached him at his table.
The witnesses' clarification is timely and alluded, first of all, to the crisis that broke out in the Xeneize club after the defeat in the superclásico against River Plate, which took the technical director Fernando Gago with it.
But it also makes clear that the "need" for Javier Milei 's supporters is exclusively football-related, as demonstrated—as those in Pro are convinced—by the Libertarians' attempts to co-opt Macri leaders without having to reach an agreement with the former president, who was completely involved in the Pro porteño campaign.
"I didn't know you were a Boca fan," the former president and former head of the club from Ribera replied, quick on his feet, unaware of the spokesperson and competitor's sudden interest in the city for the Argentines' ultimate passion.
For Adorni, accompanied by his wife Bettina Angeletti in his first appearance as a candidate in that liberal arena, everything was positive, although his photo with former President Macri did not occupy first place on the podium in the subsequent comments.
"He congratulated me on my speech. He's going to vote for me," the spokesman boasted ironically, while showing anyone who would listen a photo with Mirtha Legrand , the timeless lunch lady, who greeted him after his speech in an audience historically friendly to Macri (very calm during dinner with his wife, former first lady Juliana Awada ) and his loyalists, currently at war with LLA.
Removed from the front line of the election campaign—albeit, repeating his tweaked slogan "with faith and hope, freedom advances"—Secretary of Tourism Daniel Scioli will face a key vote in the coming days.
This is the general secretariat of UN Tourism, an influential and well-funded entity currently headed by Georgian politician and economist Zurab Poloikashvili , who is seeking re-election. Scioli initially stated that he "recognizes" all the "help" provided by the current secretary, who would have a better chance of securing the Argentine vote than his main competitor, Mexican Gloria Guevara , former Minister of Tourism under former President Felipe Calderón .
A pro-Russian candidate instead of a center-right candidate? The Ministry of Tourism assures that it will be "the government's vote," in consultation with the Casa Rosada and the Foreign Ministry, and that Argentina's position "will be decided on election day," at the end of this month. Guevara has already been received by Scioli, and Poloikashvili will have her photo taken with him next Friday the 16th. The final result is open.
The fight between the government of Radical leader Leandro Zdero and former governor Jorge Capitanich is fierce, just days before the provincial elections in Chaco.
In alliance with the libertarians, Zdero and his candidates denounced that the former Peronist governor ordered the province's walls to be covered with his name, including a huge perimeter wall of Radio Nacional de Resistencia, built in 2016 by students from the School of Fine Arts in the capital of Chaco.
“Propaganda instead of art,” criticized media outlets close to the Chaco government, as they circulated past images of the wall—colorful and filled with flowers and animals—along with current ones, which featured the legend “Chaco Deserves More” and the name of the former governor, who heads the Peronist party's list of provincial deputies in next Sunday's elections. Outraged, Capitanich denounced a campaign by his rivals to “manipulate public perception” and accused the government of distributing “fake news” ahead of the elections.
Much was said, prior to the closing of the Buenos Aires lists, about the inclusion of the Buenos Aires Minister of Health, Fernán Quirós , on the list of Buenos Aires legislators from Pro.
Citing personal reasons, and with his former boss Horacio Rodríguez Larreta on an opposition list, Quirós declined the offer from the head of the Buenos Aires government, Jorge Macri , although he is collaborating with the campaign of the Macri list, headed by national deputy Silvia Lospennato .
In the final stretch of the campaign, Quirós received a public endorsement from none other than actor Ricardo Darín , who was currently streaming his El Eternauta series. "I'd choose Fernan Quirós. I believe him, and I like the way he thinks," said the former actor when asked to choose a person to endure a moment of forced confinement, like the one depicted in the series, based on the narrative of cartoonist Héctor Oesterheld .
The news went down rather well in the Pro Party's camp, where they're already thinking about adding the Minister of Health, known during the pandemic, to more campaign activities. Every vote counts, they mull over on Uspallata Street.
Little or nothing was known about Diana Mondino after President Javier Milei removed her from her position as foreign minister, angered by her vote against the blockade of Cuba at the United Nations.
Cautiously, the economist remained silent so as not to obstruct the work of her successor, Gerardo Werthein , while a possible candidacy for national deputy for Córdoba was shelved.
Many were surprised to see her at the Fundación Libertad dinner on Monday, and without making any statements, although Mondino did continue to interact with some of the contacts she had made during her brief tenure in public office.
One of them was none other than Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira , who during one of his two recent visits to Buenos Aires (he participated in meetings of Mercosur foreign ministers) made time to meet with his former colleague, with whom he shared the task of calming down the turbulent beginnings of the relationship between the President and his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva . No one wanted to give details of what was discussed, now that Mercosur seems to be, once again, on the government's agenda.
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