MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Kirchner joins the Buenos Aires run off with heavy ammo

Less than 24 hours after the Buenos Aires City elections results were made official, Argentine president Nestor Kirchner jumped into the run off dispute scheduled for next June 24 between the Conservative winner of the first round Maruicio Macri (46%), and his protégé and Education Minister Daniel Filmus (24%).

As was anticipated the campaign will be dirty, provocative and Mr. Macri will have to appeal to all his wit and patience to contain the avalanche of aggressive rhetoric and massive resources to which the Kirchner administration is expected to appeal. "Today we can call him Mauricio", said Kirchner sitting next to Filmus during a ceremony at Casa Rosada, seat of the Executive, "but he will always be a Macri. And don't forget that". In his speech President Kirchner praised the Education minister several times, underlined the policies and achievements of his administration and again insisted in comparing them with the experience of the nineties, (opening of the economy, free markets and privatization), "which was good for a few, but terrible for the majority". The conservative candidate belongs to a strong financial group linked to the automotive and construction industries which during the nineties was also involved in acquiring government owned assets and companies, including the Post Office, which finally fell through. Kirchner said that politicians who are elected must be faithful to their convictions and "they should not disguise themselves", to rule because "the man Mr. Filmus will be competing with represents the neo-liberal model of the nineties", (which has become anathema for the left leaning regimes currently in Latinamerica). The Argentine president then went on to read a dossier of Mr Macri's voting record in Congress, overwhelmingly contrary to Kirchner's administration proposals (in controversial issues such as human rights and amnesty, education and pensions' reforms), and warned "it's essential we keep all this in mind". Kirchner underscored that what was at stake in the June 24 run off are two models of country and mentioned the Argentine post office situation which belonged to the Macri group, "maybe Mauricio remembers about it and could let us know". During the Casa Rosada ceremony to announce public works in the province of Buenos Aires, Mr. Kirchner was accompanied besides Filmus, by Planning minister Julio De Vido; vice president and candidate for governor in the province of Buenos Aires Daniel Scioli and Felipe Solá, current governor. On Sunday night the First Lady Senator Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner who is being tipped as the presidential candidate for next October 28 election and several other ministers joined the celebrations at the Filmus headquarters in downtown Buenos Aires. The Kirchner-Filmus team actually celebrated the defeat of the current mayor of Buenos Aires Jorge Telerman, who was running with the support of left wing groups that respond to Elisa Carrió, possibly President Kirchner's most powerful critic, and the current leadership of the Catholic Church. But on Sunday not all was celebration. In Patagonia in another governor's race the Kirchner candidate and his political project suffered a 16 points defeat to the hands of a traditional family that has ruled Neuquen for the last four decades. Jorge Sapag from the Popular Movement of Neuquen will be replacing Jorge Sobisch that also belongs to the same party and had promised that if successful he would challenge the Kirchners for the big prize in October. Badly battered by a teachers' strike and the killing of a protestor by a police officer, Sobisch refused to resign and helped steer his party to a landslide victory over the Kirchner ally, thus aborting a Kirchner budding string of wins in the provinces of Catamarca and Rio Negro. "Next week I'll define what I'll do, but I'm closer to continuing my presidential aspiration than abandoning it", said Sobisch. He also emphasized that MPN remains in office because "we're part of the people; we had a strong support from the whole community to what we've done and achieved in these last seven and a half years. At the most challenging moments I stood up, and people recognized this", concluded Sobisch.