Buenos Aires Herald 
National Deputy and former Buenos Aires province governor María Eugenia Vidal came out publicly for the first time in support of Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, saying she will vote for him in the upcoming Juntos por el Cambio (JxC) primaries.
The Buenos Aires city mayor is competing against fellow PRO party member Patricia Bullrich for the opposing coalition’s presidential nomination.
“With the PASO [primaries] just days away, and convinced that come August 13 we will all be united and together, I want to announce that I will be voting for Horacio [Rodríguez Larreta] in the upcoming elections,” Vidal tweeted, adding that she is voting for him because she is “convinced he is what’s best for Argentina.”
“For 27 years, I have seen [Larreta] work from Monday to Sunday, from 6 a.m. to late at night. Not a day, not a week, not a few years, always […] Argentina needs a president that will work, and never stop working. A president who is prepared and has experience, who believes in the value of teamwork,” she wrote.
Larreta thanked Vidal for her endorsement on social media, saying he will “honor” her vote and all the others he gets, adding that they share “the conviction that Argentina can change.”
“It’s that same conviction that led us, with Mauricio [Macri] and many others, to create PRO as a space that would allow us to grow in order to build that future,” tweeted Larreta.
However, the former president and founder of the PRO party was critical of Vidal’s statements.
“The best thing in life is to do what one says,” Macri said at a campaign event in San Nicolás. “And, unfortunately, I feel that María Eugenia [Vidal] has made several consecutive decisions in which she distorted her own image.”
Other prominent JxC figures commented on Vidal’s statement. National Deputy Cristian Ritondo — Vidal’s former Security Minister and current Bullrich ally — said that he was “disappointed” with her remarks in an interview with CNN Radio.
“I was also surprised because she had said she would remain neutral as it was the best thing for the party,” he said.“It’s not like anything goes when trying to get a vote.”
Macri spoke again on Twitter to clarify that he did not intend to “question” Vidal, but said that he understood Ritondo’s disappointment, as he considered Vidal “did not keep her word.”
There have been tensions between Macri and Larreta since the BA city mayor decided to separate the ballots for national and city elections in April, a decision the former president criticized by saying the BA mayor was “changing the rules.”
Bullrich’s campaign manager Juan Pablo Arenaza also chimed in, and said that Vidal had called herself the “most neutral” person, “only to end up being employee of the month again.”
“No comments,” he tweeted.
(Updated at 20:03 to add Mauricio Macri and Cristian Ritondo’s comments)
