The candidates are concerned about the day after the PASO: they fear a flight of votes and wounds that will not heal

2023-07-16 10:00:00

The STEP are a mandatory scale that the political parties want to pass as soon as possible to begin to define their future, but the candidates are afraid of the day after. They fear that the first round on October 22 will find them with a loss of votes as a result of the fierce internal elections they are going through.

Sergio Massa seems to be convinced that in the primaries there will not be an important ballot cutoff in the province of Buenos Aires, where the re-election of Governor Axel Kicillof and the mayors will be at stake.

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The Economy Minister wishes to remain in his position as long as possible, although he knows that he will be conditioned by the agreement with the IMF and the behavior of inflation and the dollar.

You can apply the well-known phrase “the master’s eye fattens the cattle”. He is aware that the economy will be a determining factor in the elections and he wants to be the one to continue leading that process.

Massa knows that he is conditioned by the agreement with the IMF. (Photo: Twitter @sergiomassa)

The problem is what happens after the STEP. The famous and so feared ticket cut, especially in the Buenos Aires suburbs.

In general, in the primary elections, the mayors do not cut the ballot or the militancy does not go to the polls with a short ballot. The general ones would be very exposed to more than two months. They play it later.

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And that is Massa’s great challenge in case the economy continues to give him severe headaches. He has to avoid a massive purchase of scissors, as the most experienced communal chiefs tend to plot.

But that look does not fall only on the mayors, but also on La Cámpora, which is gambling its power in the Province with the lists of national senators and deputies. At the head are Wado de Pedro and Máximo Kirchner, circumstantial allies of Massa.

Meanwhile, the opposition also has its fears.

Whoever wins in the PASO wins, both Horacio Rodríguez Larreta and Patricia Bullrich have their doubts about the behavior that a part of the electorate that is fully at stake in the fight between the two will have in the general elections. They think they may be affected by the so-called crack vote.

That thought also falls on Jorge Macri and Martín Lousteau whose inmate also knows of strong confrontations.

The inmates within Juntos por el Cambio generate concern about the flight of votes after the PASO. (Photo: NA).

And Javier Miley? For now, he is focused on closing the scandal opened by the complaints of requesting money in exchange for large sums of money in dollars, which made him drop in the polls.

But he also got on the Milemobile, a motorhome that he uses to tour the country under the slogan “Freedom Tour.” She not only goes in search of votes, but to rebuild the image of her political force that did not have a good time in the elections that were held in several provinces.

What no candidate should forget is the disenchantment and lack of interest that a good number of Argentines feel for this electoral process and that can be transformed into not going to vote or into voting in anger.

Those responsible are in sight: the politicians themselves.