Everything was prepared to give an image of unity, brotherhood and good manners, but the internal tension might not be hidden… The national table of Together for Change met to discuss how social policies should work in a possible new government of the alliance. It was a kind of pooling of what the technical teams of the PRO, the UCR, the CC and the Peronist Republican Encounter have been working on. Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, Patricia Bullrich, Gerardo Morales, Gustavo Valdés, Miguel Pichetto and many others were present. But the data was who was not: Mauricio Macri. Insufflated by the speeches of the extreme right, the former president has been insisting that the PRO must recover its identity and distance itself from radicalism. Morales, the head of the UCR, did not let it pass: “There is Together for Change with radicalism inside, although some like it more or less”. The other fact of the day was the coincidence of the allies in target once morest social organizations.
Behind closed doors, the meeting took place in a key territory for Peronism such as La Matanza. The discussion on social policies was opened with the presentation of the different reports prepared by the party foundations. Then, the referents of the different parties took the floor. In addition to those mentioned, there were Diego Santilli, Cristian Ritondo, Luis Naidenoff, Maximiliano Ferraro, Omar de Marchi, Joaquín de la Torre, Alejandro Finocchiaro and Ramón Puerta, among others.
The enemy
There was a final document. There, they pointed out that “poverty in our country reaches 17.2 million people (37 percent of the population), of which 3.8 million are in a situation of indigence (8 percent), particularly affecting more than 5.7 million boys and girls”. They added that “expenditure on promotion and social assistance” represents “5.2 percent of total spending and 1.2 percent of GDP,” through two main lines: the Empower Work program and food benefits.
The JxC document indicates that “the execution of these lines today presents two major obstacles regarding the objective of ending poverty: on the one hand, the implementation in an intermediary way, particularly for the Empower Work line, and on the other, the overlapping and dispersion of programs and powers when it comes to food transfers”. For this reason, the conclusion is that “the State must once once more take the direction of social policy directly. Without intermediation, ending political patronage and being at the service of the integral development of each person.” Namely, what the opposition alliance is proposing is to remove social organizations from the middlewhich they hold responsible for the socioeconomic crisis.
“There has to be a redesign of social policies, to make them universal and to build citizenship,” the radical Morales said at the end of the meeting. The governor of Jujuy considered that the social plans must be managed “by a present State” and called for “ending the intermediation that has done so much damage to many people, especially the most vulnerable sectors.”
The other spokeswoman for the meeting was Bullrich, the president of the PRO. “Argentina’s social policy failed, because there is more and more money and more poor people,” she assured. “A total change is needed”, “a true inclusion policy” and that “the intermediation in the plans is finished”. And she concluded: “Today Together for Change is committed to a profound change, so that people can progress and not stay with a social plan.”
The absent
Although some wanted to present Macri’s absence as an attempt to pacify the internal, subsequent statements made it clear that the struggle to define a balance of forces for 2023 is in full dispute. The former president encourages his party, the PRO, to recover his original ideas and move away from the UCR guidelines. Obviously, this definition collides with the interests of the co-religionists, who aspire to improve the position of the party in the alliance.
Regarding Macri’s absence at the meeting, Morales said he had “no problem” with the former president, but was blunt: “There are Together for Change with radicalism inside, although some like it more or less.” And he remarked: “We have to end the crack, with the fight between us and we have to question ourselves,” he said.
Rodríguez Larreta and Pichetto tried to avoid the tension between the PRO and the UCR and highlighted the need to strengthen the coalition to win the elections next year. The head of the Buenos Aires government said that JxC has to reach 2023 “with a government plan, because we are going to win.” And the referent of Republican Peronism maintained that “if we stick together and don’t do anything stupid, we will be the government in Argentina.”
