“Liberals are taking pictures of us robbing representatives and senators when we saved their lives these two years, even in their worst moments.” The powerful phrase of one of the pro party MPs that Mauricio Macri listened to so often before PERFIL resonates among the leaders of the Yellow Party.
In a wave that began after the AFP won the October elections, the party suffered the loss of lawmakers at the national level. This coincides with the movements taking place in the city, after Silvia Lospinato decided to take her seat as a legislator in Buenos Aires, after months of speculation about remaining in the Senate.
In this context, one of the decisions they took in the party was to leave the relationship with the Liberals on “standby mode.” In particular, the smiles of Patricia Bullrich and Martin Menem, including representatives and senators, have fallen badly in PRO. They say in the Yellow Party: “They never proposed an objection with us, but rather they always preferred to remove us from the legislators.”
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But there are cases and cases. It went under the radar but the departure of Carmen Álvarez Rivero (senator) and Belén Aveco (representative) from Córdoba to the LLA was a slap in the face to the party that made them legislators. He continued with the revolutionaries (with the exception of Silvana Giudici, most of whom were happy with the change of color), but this week he surprised Alejandro Bongiovanni, who entered Santa Fe.
Another case study for political science is that of Gisela Scaglia, head of the PRO in Santa Fe, who announced that she would not be in the yellow seat because, as lieutenant governor, she owed greater loyalty to Maximiliano Pollaro, the radical leader of Emiliano Yacopetti. This apparent contradiction is not new: the president of the Córdoba Federation, Óscar Agust Carreño, has been a national legislator for four years without belonging to the yellow bench.
For his part, Bongiovanni is a true historic liberal of the Libertad establishment. He had been analyzing his statement for some time, but according to those around him, he was convinced by listening to María Eugenia Vidal on television talking about the distance between the prosecution and the government. He doesn’t like her at all. Among the arguments he made, he talked about the Scaglia case, noting that he feels closer to the LLA and Patricia Bullrich, and given the distance the LLA has raised with Casa Rosada, he feels, he said, “it’s not my fight.” His critics claim that his seat has always been yellow and that they believe he has greater loyalty to Macri.
Another case is that of businesswoman Veronica Razzini, who betrayed first the Attorney General and then Gabrielle Chumpitas, the MP who put her on the list. Razzini is also a case to be analysed: she had asked Ritondo to let her back into the building, was with Chompitas trying to make arrangements with Scalia, and even talked Macri into staying if Santa Fe could intervene. None of that happened and she ended up with LLA.
Given this, the head of the PRO bloc, Cristian Ritondo, took action. Although his bloc has increased from 38 to 14 legislators, he is already working on forming a joint bloc with his friend Oscar Zago and his benches as well as the nearby radicals (without Martin Lousteau) and even Miguel Pichetto and Nicolas Massot, who have not yet finalized their integration into the United Provinces bloc. The idea specifically is to be able to better negotiate committees and positions of power in MPs in front of the backbench that a group of Conservatives was generating.
There is another fact: outgoing MP Silvia Lospinato (who will respect her seat as legislator in Buenos Aires to which she was elected, but not her seat as national representative for the province that has two more years to go) holds the position of third vice president of the Chamber of Deputies, which could be a bargaining chip with the LLA.
The Lospinato case also has its own characteristics. He went back and forth with his decision for two months. Depending on the week, it looked like she would stay on as an MP, just as Macri wanted, to prevent hopeful Lorena Petrovic from taking office and prevent the Pro Party from losing another seat. She asked to be, in addition to being a third deputy, the parliamentary secretary of the bloc (the position held by Giudici before going to the LLA). Ritondo said no: he didn’t trust her anymore. Javier Sanchez Lora has chosen this as the main place to remove or stop the laws.
To go to the city, he asked for everything: First Vice President of the Buenos Aires Legislature, a position that was quickly rejected. The idea that she would be the leader of the bloc had left her. But it will not be easy for him: the current president of the small seat in Buenos Aires is Dario “Daro” Nieto, who is none other than Macri’s former private secretary, and who also has an internal consensus to continue. “The 2026 budget and the tariff law have been approved. In the midst of great parliamentary weakness in the city government. Tremendous work by Matias Lopez (first deputy who controls the legislature) and Daro Nieto,” “Lilito” Facundo del Gaiso (a member of the Buenos Aires government) told Lospinato this week.
A warm welcome to Lospinato and a message also to the enthusiastic legislator Gimina Villafruela, who has no problem accepting the imposition of an administrative secretary on her to take over the position of Vice President. The Villafruela case will also be a study if it comes true: for the first time in the history of the city’s autonomy, legislative power will pass through the administrative secretary (regional senator Cristian Gribaudo is already calling) and through two players who do not sit in Buenos Aires’ parliament: Daniel “El Tano” Angelici and Buenos Aires’ Minister of Justice, Francisco Quintana. Villafruela would almost be a decorative character. I will follow in the footsteps of Vice President Clara Muzio in Peru 160.
For now, it will become clear this week that Hernan Lombardi, Minister of Economic Development, will not take up his position and will leave his place to Waldo Wolff.