Right-wing party PRO has decided to form a coalition with ruling national party La Libertad Avanza (LLA) for the upcoming local elections in Buenos Aires province. 

A LLA source confirmed to the Herald that the electoral front will compete with a ballot bearing President Javier Milei’s party name, as PRO is coming from a position of weakness after losing the May city elections in Buenos Aires City.

A comuniqué issued by PRO’s provincial branch following a meeting of their directive council on Friday stated that the party is going to “end populism in Buenos Aires province.” The reference was a direct jab at Governor Axel Kicillof, a Peronist economist usually at the center of President Javier Milei’s criticisms.

The statement went on to say that there is “no time for speculation” when two “opposing models” that have a “direct impact” on people’s lives are under discussion. 

“There is no time to think about the problems of politics.”

Cristian Ritondo, a national PRO deputy and the head of the party in Buenos Aires, was in charge of the discussions and favored an agreement with LLA. The agreement opens the door to negotiations for potential candidates, which remains an open chapter. 

The comings and goings of PRO and LLA

Buenos Aires citizens will head to the polls twice this year. First, on September 7, for local legislative elections, and then on October 26, when Argentines will renew lawmakers from the upper and lower houses of Congress.

LLA is set to have an edge in the negotiations as the parties determine who will be on the ballots. PRO and LLA had been in a “will they, won’t they” situation for months now. In May’s Buenos Aires city elections, they ran with separate ballots. Both parties viewed those elections as a primary and considered that whichever got the most votes would have the upper hand in the negotiations for the upcoming national and provincial elections.

LLA won those elections, with 30.1% of the votes. PRO came in third with 15.9%, the worst result for the “yellow” party in almost 20 years of dominance in the Argentine capital. It was the first time PRO had fallen behind Peronism in Buenos Aires City since the party’s creation.

“That is why it was agreed upon that the ballot will have the name of LLA and be violet,” a source from the party’s provincial branch told the Herald.

However, that does not mean that LLA candidates will automatically lead the ballots for the province’s eight electoral districts, as PRO has something that the ruling party doesn’t: provincial mayors. As a party, it has 16 in total, a number that shoots up to 48 if the count includes those from the defunct Juntos por el Cambio coalition, which included the PRO, UCR, GEN, and local parties. Peronism has 84 mayors.

“A PRO mayor who has to negotiate the ballot will obviously ask for the first and the second places, we could say that they are in a position to do so, because they have a structure,” the LLA source added. 

“Negotiating with a mayor is not the same as agreeing with a party.”