MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Buenos Aires: Candidates compete for the last word

Candidates Mauricio Macri, Jorge Telerman and Daniel Filmus

Brutal government intervention,“ is what mayoral candidate Jorge Telerman blamed for the fact that his rival Daniel Filmus had managed to climb a few percentage points in the polls for Sunday's City elections. He made his remarks as the curtain fell on the 2007 mayoral campaign — after 8am yesterday morning all campaigning was banned.

Thanks however to radio breakfast shows, all three main candidates were able to get a last word in before the campaign curfew kicked in. Education Minister Daniel Filmus went on the defensive, saying he had abstained from using goverment prowess to boost his campaign, telling Radio Continental "we have still not announced the construction of a thousand new schools," because doing so could get "mixed up" with the campaign. He retaliated to insinuations that his campaign was a misuse of public funds, saying that "never in the history of Buenos Aires was so much money spent on official publicity," a snipe directed at incumbent mayor Jorge Telerman. Telerman was also the butt of PRO party's Mauricio Macri curtain call remarks. "He tried to work with us and to get our support for his candidature. We said no and now all of a sudden he starts yelling atrocities." Macri told the same radio station, referring to Telerman's accusations that he, Macri, was trying "usurp" Buenos Aires for his own business ends. According to the president of Boca Junior soccer club, who looks certain to make it into the next round of voting, the incumbent City mayor had also flirted with government patronage, saying he "tried to be a penguin, but they wouldn't let him." The most surprising remark of the candidates' encore came from the verbose Telerman who, when asked if he was "anti-Kirchner" quoted Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni in his role in the celebrated film Una Giornatta Particulare, saying "It's not that I'm anti-fascist, it's just fascism is against me." Buenos Aires Herald