The great victory obtained this Sunday by the president’s party in the legislative elections of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires represents a hard blow for the formation of the former president, first defeated in almost 20 years in his main electoral bastion and weakened in the dispute for the leadership of the Argentine right.
The list headed by the presidential spokesman, Manuel Adorni, was imposed with 30.1 % of the votes, surpassing the Peronist Leandro Santoro (27.5 %) and practically doubling the Republican Proposed Party (PRO), led by former president Mauricio Macri (2015-2019), who reaped only 15.9 % with the candidacy of Silvia Lospennato.
The national ruling, La Libertad progresses (Lla), obtained a strong boost from the capital population and managed to double the votes he had obtained in the city in 2023, when he was around 13 %.
In addition, he inflicted a hard defeat, which governs in the capital since 2007 and had reached almost 50 % of the votes in the last election.
Although only 30 of the 60 seats of the local legislature were renewed on this day and the city government was not at stake, the result had a strong symbolic burden on the dispute for the leadership of the Argentine right for the national legislative elections of October.
“The yellow bastion was painted violet today,” Milei celebrated, in reference to the colors that identify their party and the PRO, respectively. “From now on, to paint the whole country as a violet,” added the president, who actively involved in the campaign and turned the choice into a test to consolidate Lla as the main opposition force to Peronism.
The main winner of the day, Manuel Adorni, said after knowing the results that “this was not simply a local choice”, but a contest between “two models”, in an attempt to deepen the national political polarization between Lla and Peronism, leaving Pro.
Along the same lines, the presidential spokesman invited “each of the leaders of the different parties who want a real change for Argentina” to support the government, in a clear reference to the members of PRO.
“A new reality”
That same message was promoted by Santoro, whom the polls gave as probable winner in the face of the fragmentation of the conservative space, but that was second after the great performance of Lla.
“Obviously the pro as a political project stopped representing most of the Buenos Aires,” he said, and said: “There is a new reality.”
For her part, the candidate designated by Macri, Silvia Lospenno, recognized the defeat, criticized Lla for “crossed all the limits” in the campaign and defended that Pro seeks to “represent a change with balance, with respect, without insults and without cruelty.”
Cross attacks between these two forces began in recent months, after the decision to go separately to the elections this Sunday, thus breaking with the alliance they had maintained nationwide in 2023 already parliamentary level in 2024.
In the last weeks, Milei attacked Macri incessantly and this Sunday, in the middle of the election day, he called him “weeping” for his complaint about the dissemination of a false video manufactured by artificial intelligence in which the former president was heard expressing his support for the candidacy of Adorni.
After knowing the triumph of Lla in the Argentine capital, Macri said in an interview with the TN channel that the result “gives a lot to reflect” and, although he questioned the attacks received, he was willing to dialogue with the Milei party: “If there is respect, we are willing to see where we are going, but we take a week.”
The results of this Sunday will inevitably have an impact on the negotiations that both formations have been maintained on a possible joint candidacy in the legislative elections of next September in the province of Buenos Aires, the main electoral district of the country and historical bastion of Peronism.
