Q: How do you see Axel Kicillof’s government?
AC: Kicillof’s is the worst government since the return of democracy. It is a populist, pseudo-communist government. The only thing he is interested in is enlarging the State, spending more than it has, putting the province in debt and increasing public employment. It’s very sad what he’s doing. He is creating a populist and socialist State within Argentina. Unfortunately it is the opposite of what the president does.
Q: And why did people re-elect him?
AC: When you do the math, there were more votes for sectors of the center right. If we add the votes of the PRO gubernatorial candidate, Néstor Grindetti, and that of La Libertad Avanza, Carolina Píparo, we reach almost 5 million votes. Kicillof took out 4 million. He would have lost the province if the center-right -JxC and LLA -had given a unified electoral proposal.
Q: Will the PRO continue to support the government?
AC: What we support is what is best for Argentina. From the first moment, we did it, convinced that the best alternative was LLA against Sergio Massa. We accompany Milei from the runoff. Our president of the party, Mauricio Macri, was forceful and decided to support him to become president: we put prosecutors so that LLA could win the election and, as soon as he took office, on December 10, the lowering of the line was clear to the senators and deputies so that support the policies and give all the tools to Javier Milei so that he can govern and make the necessary changes. We accompany with the Bases Law and many others.
Q: Is this good harmony between Macri and Milei reciprocal?
AC: We don’t do anything out of speculation. When we vote and support, we do so because it is the best for Argentina. 20 years ago we founded the PRO to change Argentina and for it to become a power again, to have a direction of growth. That was always our north. If there is a president carrying out structural reforms, such as fiscal balance – something that Mauricio always proposed – we have the obligation to accompany him. The LLA economic team, “Toto” Caputo and Federico Sturzenegger, was born in the PRO. This shows that the direction we were taking was the correct one.
Q: Do you think that the PRO and La Libertad Avanza should work in a large opposition front to Axel Kicillof or that the party should preserve its essence and bring its own candidates?
AC: All PROs should discuss this issue internally. But what I personally believe is that we have to leave egos aside and work together to give the people of Buenos Aires a unified center-right alternative so that what happened in the last elections does not happen, which with the division of two candidates with the same ideology and the same provincial outlook end up dividing the vote and making Kirchnerism pass through the middle. We have to work a lot in these years, not so much for the legislative election, but to ensure that, in 2027, when we reach the election that defines who will be the governor of the province, we can give an offer to the people of Buenos Aires with a front electoral with all these integrated forces. Without going any further, in Santa Cruz, where all the Kirchnerists took refuge between 2015 and 2019, we worked on an opposition front and managed to beat them after 35 years. We must look for that north and be able to end the damage that Kirchnerism and populism did to the province by enlarging the State, wasting money, spending on pornographic books for children. It’s everything that’s wrong.
Q: Should Macri be a candidate in 2025?
AC: It is a topic that he has to define. I was one of those who told him that he should have been a candidate for president with Milei as vice president. We should have avoided the intern between Patricia Bullrich and Horacio Rodríguez Larreta. We were not prepared for that internal. The result was clear, we came out third. He decided not to show up and is respectable. Mauricio founded a party, generated dozens of very important leaders, encouraged people to participate in politics, we governed and transformed the City, we governed the province and Argentina and it was the most modern party of this last century.
Q: There are those who point out that within LLA there is some resistance to an electoral agreement with the PRO because they believe that the libertarians have already absorbed the yellow voters. Do you see it like that?
AC: Libertad Avanza needs the PRO to be able to carry out the policies. They needed us for the runoff, to pass the most important laws and to accompany them in the national Congress.
Q: This year, the Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich, broke the PRO block in both Chambers. Five deputies and a senator from space made the leap to La Libertad Avanza. Could this leak have been prevented?
AC: I respect Patricia as a leader, but I do not share her way of having made a unilateral decision and having gone to close with Javier Milei without having this internal discussion within the PRO. I can speak for myself, what I would do at the provincial level, but I am not alone. Here we have to work internally and make a party decision, collective and not individual, and carry it forward. Patricia made an individual decision and left the space. It was not a decision of the PRO. The PRO is accompanying, but maintaining its identity, which has three great governors: Jorge Macri, Ignacio Torres and Rogelio Frigerio, very important mayors, deputies and senators. That is why we maintain our party identity. Join us, but from another place. Patricia said “I want to integrate LLA”, without caring about the PRO as a party.
Q: What is your reading of the complaint against Cristian Ritondo for alleged illicit enrichment?
AC: I have known Cristian for many years, I know about his work, his ethics, his way of doing politics.. The PRO always appeared before Justice when there was a complaint. This is a complaint, not an accusation. The person who made the complaint made several false complaints. We have no problem. We governed the City, the province and we never had corruption crimes. That is the PRO and every time they call us to court, we will appear.
The legislative task
Q: How did you work so much with the opposition blocks in the Legislature this year?
AC: It was difficult. During the mandate of María Eugenia Vidal we removed privileged retirements from politicians and also those from Banco Provincia and we ended indefinite re-elections. That was going against caste and against the privileges of politics. Three weeks ago, the so-called “Libertad Avanza blue” ended up accompanying Kicillof to go back with this measure. That hurts because they enter through a place and end up voting against what their voters chose.
Q: What does the party think of the projects presented to suspend the Simultaneous and Mandatory Open Primaries (PASO)?
AC: The PASO are a bad expense of the politics that Kirchnerism invented. But to change any electoral rule, you have to seek consensus. Nor should it be done a few months before an election. It suits Cristina Kirchner now and she wants to remove them. An electoral reform must be carried out to spend less taxpayer money, but it must be done at another time, for the next election. Do not seek political advantages.
Q: You presented a project to implement the Single Ballot in the province. Why do you think this change is necessary?
AC: To start modernizing the policy. We continue voting with a ballot where no one knows the people who vote because it is a complete list. It saves on ballot printing and there would be only one ballot in the dark room. I would have gone further and pointed to the single electronic ballot, which is the most transparent system with double control and the fastest.
Alex Campbell
Q: What is your position regarding the Buenos Aires 2025 Budget and the Tax Law?
AC: It is difficult for us to support any budget that does not have fiscal balance, that continues to put the province in debt, that increases the number of public employees, that wants to create more public companies instead of shrinking the State and that increases taxes.. Because they say that taxes will not rise above inflation and then they do other things, as happened this year.
Q: And about modifying the limit on indefinite reelections of mayors?
AC: The PRO was clear: We are totally against indefinite re-elections. With Vidal and Macri we always went against the privileges of politics and against indefinite re-elections. It was a state policy.
Source: Ambito
I am Pierce Boyd, a driven and ambitious professional working in the news industry. I have been writing for 24 Hours Worlds for over five years, specializing in sports section coverage. During my tenure at the publication, I have built an impressive portfolio of articles that has earned me a reputation as an experienced journalist and content creator.
