Critical sectors of radicalism dream of Lavagna

They want to bring the discussion to the party convention, but the leadership prefers to postpone the debate

Frustrated for now the alternative of coping

Mauricio Macri

with its own primary candidate next August, the most critical sector of radicalism is evaluating an approach with

Roberto Lavagna

, potential candidate for the presidency of non-Kirchner Peronism.

Although Lavagna has still not confirmed his candidacy, the critical voices of the centennial party that promote the possibility of an electoral agreement with the former Minister of Economy are added.

"What seemed a pipe dream a few weeks ago, is an alternative that wins in body and volume," say the most enthusiastic, aware that, to crystallize, an agreement of this nature would place the coalition on the verge of break.

Ricardo Alfonsin is one of the actors of the rapprochement with Lavagna: the son of the former president is one of the representatives of the party that questions most the situation in Cambiemos and, especially, the docile attitude which, in his opinion, was decisive. UCR against macrismo in these three years of political coexistence.

His obsession is that the party's main staff convene the National Convention as soon as possible to review the strategy for the October elections.

However, the dome of radicalism, led by the governor of Mendoza, Alfredo Cornejo, does not make him happy for the moment: with him, a large part of the leaders of the UCR intends to postpone the anticipated internal debate, agitated and unpredictable for the future of Cambio, until the disappearance of the climate of economic uncertainty.

According to Alfonsin, radicalism has three alternatives to presidential elections. One is to compete with your own list – the famous "list 3" – without alliances. He flatly rejects this possibility.

The second option is to maintain
status quo, that is, to continue the current dynamics of change with Pro's prominence in decision-making. Alfonsín also opposes this option. Instead, he proposes to compete with Macri in the primary elections with one of his own candidates, a possibility that the leadership of his party will undo.

In a third time, Alfonsin suggests expanding the coalition. Let's change new political actors. "People are demanding new options: they do not want to go back to the experience of Kirchnerism and its past of corruption, nor to repeat this present of adjustment and recession," he said.

Who would these new actors be? "Socialism, Margarita Stolbizer's GEN and Kirchner's non-Peronist sectors", he replies. "It is only if we expand this coalition through programmatic and electoral agreements that we can guarantee the governability of the country in the future," he insisted.

In the same vein, the president of the party congress, Cordovan Jorge Sappia, is enlisted. "I do not think that radicalism is able to present its own candidate, but to propose a big front of the electoral unit, this crisis does not come with one, but in an alliance", he said. declared. And he warned, "There is a lot to fix in Cambiemos, if the coalition goes on like this, I have doubts about the fact that it will survive."

Alfonsin does not mention him by name or family name, but in his mind is the name of Lavagna, former head of his father's government, as a potential ally.

This would not be the first electoral experience together: during the 2007 presidential election, Lavagna and Radicalism united to confront Kirchnerism in the UNA (One Advanced Nation) alliance, in which Gerardo Morales (now governor of Jujuy) supported the former vice presidential candidate.

Alfonsin was then a candidate for the governor of Buenos Aires.

The experiment was not successful: the UNA took third place, the alliance was broken a few days after the defeat and, a few weeks later, Lavagna was presented with Néstor Kirchner in the fifth Olivos. The return of the former minister to Peronism has never materialized, but this photo remains indelible in the memory of many radicals.

Another page

Alfonsin prefers to turn the page and, in a low voice, encourages the possibility of a new approach to his party with Lavagna. To incorporate, as he suggests, the former Cambiemos alliance minister is a political oxymoron and he knows it well: neither Macri nor Lavagna want to know anything about each other, so that electoral coexistence between the two is impossible.

But Alfonsin did not throw the idea at random: his goal is to force discussion within the party and change the
status quo dominant If the party leadership does not call the National Convention, each district will have the freedom of action to define its own electoral strategy. A challenge of the most critical sectors of the party.

Cornejo shelters in silence and prefers not to move the chips for the moment. It happens that, although the RCU has accepted the common lists of candidates for Macrism in half of the provinces, there are still some disturbing pockets of rebellion. As in Cordoba: after the dissolution of Cambiemos, the radical candidate for the post of governor, Ramón Mestre, threatened to withdraw his four national deputies from the deadlock of Cambiemos.

With less virulence, the UCR Santa Fe (after the intervention of the party) and Misiones is also dissatisfied. While in Buenos Aires, the governor Maria Eugenia Vidal did not confirm the radical Daniel Salvador as a candidate for vice.

Cornejo admits that it is not yet time to convene the party: with such a level of turbulence, nothing guarantees the stability of Cambiemos.