MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Maximo Kirchner and Macri clash over Sunday's election in Buenos Aires

“They wanted to change everything last year and now they want to leave everything the same,” said Maximo Kirchner

Cristina Fernandez son, Maximo Kirchner, lawmaker candidate for the Victory Front took time on Monday to comment on presidential hopeful Mauricio Macri’s Sunday speech, after his candidate Horacio Rodriguez Larreta won in the Buenos Aires City’s runoff by a much closer margin than expected.

 ”When I heard Macri speaking about the child allowance and Aerolineas Argentinas, I thought it was (CEO) Mariano Recalde,” the son of president Cristina Fernandez said in reference to the pro-business candidate statements on the role of the state if he is elected president.

“They wanted to change everything last year and now they want to leave everything the same,” he said adding “they have changed. Their name ‘Cambiemos’ (Let’s change in Spanish) is a good choice” Maximo added ironically.

The leader of La Campora youth organization who is running for a seat in representation of the Santa Cruz province, told Radio Nacional that “society should be alert to this kind of hypocrisy, because many of the insults and attacks we have received were for these policies that they are trying to support now due to a mere political speculation“.

However Macri on the campaign trail and despite some Sunday bruising was quick to reply to Maximo in the same ironic style.

”Yes I believe in the presence and role of the State, but for the benefit of the people, not to give the boys of La Campora good paid jobs“, said Macri who in effect on Sunday anticipated he would respect child allowance, and the pensions' scheme as well as promising to keep Aerolineas Argentinas as a government managed flag carrier.

Macri admitted that ”if we did oppose at the time when the Aerolineas Argentinas bill was sent to Congress was because we saw it coming, and it's not an anecdote: it is there to see“.

The current mayor of Buenos Aires insisted in what has become a very sensitive issue for Argentine public opinion: ”yes a bigger state, a larger payroll, but it's not a strategy to benefit the plain law abiding citizen who pays his taxes, but a strategy to give jobs and power to militants from La Campora, as we all know”.