Right-wing party PRO announced that national deputy Silvia Lospenatto will be its top candidate for the Buenos Aires City legislature elections on May 18. The contest will be a crucial affair for the party created by former President Mauricio Macri as it faces the real possibility of losing in the district where it was born and remains the centerpiece of its political power. 

The candidates following Lospenatto are city officials — Economic Development Minister Hernán Lombardi and government spokesperson Laura Alonso. Current city lawmaker Darío Nieto, one of Mauricio Macri’s closest collaborators, is in fourth place. Thirty seats will be renewed in the legislature, half of which belong to the PRO. Recent polls show that the vote seems to be split, and there is no clear winner at the moment.

The PRO has ruled the city ever since Macri became mayor in 2007. Current BA City Mayor Jorge Macri, Mauricio’s cousin, is the third consecutive PRO politician to govern the district after the former president and Horacio Rodríguez Larreta. It has also won 8 legislative elections since then. The emergence of La Libertad Avanza (LLA, for its Spanish initials) following the victory of President Javier Milei, however, could put this string of dominance in jeopardy. 

While PRO began as a center-right party, it has veered more and more to the far-right, to the point where it is the government’s main ally in Congress and appears to be in synch with it on most major issues. In 2023, the city government, for example, promoted a pro-life hotline in public hospitals, in line with LLA’s anti-abortion stance. The city’s social council head, evangelical activist Cynthia Hotton, was behind the initiative.

Opposition parties are keen to take advantage of this political metamorphosis.

One of them is none other than LLA. After recently ending a “will they, won’t they” dynamic with PRO, the ruling party decided it would try and set foot in the district and will run with its own candidate. Presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni will be the face of LLA’s campaign in the city as he runs for a seat in the Legislature. At press time, the second and third candidates were set to be Banco Nación director Solana Pelayo and Agency for the Administration of State Assets head Nicolás Pakgojz, a LLA city source told the Herald.

The list of parties and candidates hoping to make waves in the most uncertain election in years, however, does not end there.

Names to watch in the city elections

Former Buenos Aires City Mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta announced he will also run. Larreta co-founded the PRO in 2007 but distanced himself from the party after it started to come close to LLA. This will mark his return to politics after his presidential aspirations were cut short in the 2023 primary elections.

“For the city we built together. Because Buenos Aires is not okay, and nobody listens to you,” he wrote in his post. “Because it’s dirty, it’s sad. Because there are no public works. Because it smells like piss.”

The Unión por la Patria (UxP) peronist coalition will run with Leandro Santoro as its main candidate. Santoro was a candidate for Buenos Aires city mayor in 2023 and narrowly made it into the runoff. He eventually stepped down, crowning Macri as the winner. The ballot will also include La Cámpora social organization, which is close to former President Cristina Kirchner, as well as representatives of social leader Juan Grabois and union leaders.

Dissident right-wing Peronist Guillermo Moreno will also have his own ballot. His ticket will be led by the former vice president of the Korean Businesspersons Chamber in Argentina, Alejandro Kim. Former chief of staff during Cristina Kirchner’s presidency Juan Manuel Abal Medina will run in a third Peronist ballot, with the support of the Movimiento Evita social movement.

Yamil Santoro, a right-wing lawyer and leader of the Republicanos Unidos party, is set to be one of the more colorful side notes of the campaign due to some dubious tactics that appear meant to draw votes away from UxP. 

He initially presented a logo for his Unión Porteña Libertaria coalition that had the same acronym and colors as UxP. The BA City electoral court, however, forced him to change it. Undeterred, Santoro has now named his brother as the head of the ballot. He is called Leandro Santoro, which so happens to be the same first and last name of the main Peronist candidate.

Two other off-brand libertarian ballots will also be present in the elections. Ramiro Marra, recently expelled from LLA, will run for the traditional Unión del Centro Democrático, usually referred to as Ucedé. Marra’s platform includes “exterminating slums.” For his part, Oscar Zago, leader of the Movimiento de Integración y Desarrollo (MID) party, which belonged to LLA, will also have his own ballot. It will be led by Ricardo Caruso Lombardi, a former footballer and coach.