With just 90 days before the deadline to confirm his candidacy, former president Mauricio Macri announced that he will not run for president in a 5-minute video this morning.

“I repeat my decision to not be a candidate in the upcoming election — we need to broaden the political spectrum in order to continue the change that we’ve begun, but I’ll continue to defend freedom and democracy,” he said.

In his video, he also praised his 2015-2019 administration, criticizing President Alberto Fernández’s administration.

“’Never again’ will we be represented by a puppet,’ he said in referene to Fernández, who was selected by Vice President Cristina Kirchner to run for president in May 2019. “Never Again” or “Nunca Más” is a motto used by Argentina’s human rights movement calling for the horrors of the last military dictatorship to never be repeated.  

This message came amid uncertainty among his coalition, Juntos por el Cambio, as Buenos Aires City Mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta and PRO president Patricia Bullrich head to what seems to be a strong competition in primaries —  Larreta representing a more moderate faction and Bullrich supporting far-right policies.

Macri stepping down from the presidential race without explicitly supporting any of the Juntos por el Cambio presidential candidates specifically, he leaves the game open for them to run against each other in the August primaries.