The Election in Buenos Aires

1.

I’m now going to write a few lines about the upcoming municipal elections in Buenos Aires, another election I can’t vote in; this one because I couldn’t be bothered to do the “trámite” to get myself on the electoral register on time. So here are the runners and riders…

2.

Both Mauricio Macri himself and his family’s business have a long history of making money out of dubious deals with the state. He says he has nothing to do with the management of the SOCMA group anymore but it’s hard to believe he’s not still a major shareholder in it. We can’t put someone in charge of the city whose family business is an important contractor to it. As if that wasn’t enough reason not to vote him I believe that, in spite of the recent softening of his discourse, his core beliefs are fundamentally hard right and his attitude to the sex education law tells us all we need to know about his attitude to the Church.

3.

Daniel Filmus is obsequious, not too bright, only running because K. ordered him too and his stint at the Ministry of Education has not been anything like as good as it’s cracked up to be.

4.

Jorge Telerman is a charming, totally unprincipled opportunist with a thin veneer of culture for impressing the lumpen “progre” class. And worst of all, being the incumbent, he has not wasted the opportunity to spend public money on his campaign.

 

5.

 

No sane person could vote for any of them, at least not in the first round. If I had done my civic duty and gotten my name on the electoral register on time, I’d give the nod in the first round to Lozano. He’s the only left-wing candidate with a clue how the real world works and doesn’t have a “year zero” approach to politics. Another point in his favour is that he has a great running mate; María América González is the embodiment of what ARI could have become had it not been led by someone with the messianic streak of Carrió. That said I’d have block my ears every time he opens his mouth about Chávez and Morales. Unfortunately Lozano and González will be lucky to get 10% of the vote in the first round and I would be left with the unpleasant decision of having to vote for either Filmus or Telerman in order to block Macri. I suppose that I’d swallow hard, hold my nose and do it but I am not entirely sure….