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Macri reminds he has not signed up for next year's Argentine primaries

“Macri does candidate things,” Rodríguez Larreta argued

Former Argentine President Mauricio Macri Thursday said in a radio interview that he would not be a candidate in the 2023 elections, despite all signs pointing in that direction after the announcement of his new book to be released on Oct. 18.

As the opposition Together for Change (Juntos por el Cambio - JxC) alliance goes through a leadership crisis with many leaders vying to win the primaries, Macri argued he would not compete with Buenos Aires Mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, PRO Chairwoman Patricia Bulllrich or his former running mate Miguel Ángel Pichetto.

Read also: Argentina: Pichetto to make presidential bid in 2023

“It is time to fight for ideas and values, not for one's own [benefit],” Macri said in a radio interview. “Today no one is governing” Argentina, “neither Alberto Fernández, nor Cristina Kirchner, nor Sergio Massa,” he underlined while insisting the ruling Everyone's Front (FdT) patches things up.

“Juntos por el Cambio gained experience, has vitality, and is going to have a global mandate, because in 2015 there was a lot of reality denial. Now we all became aware that the joke of living on subsidies had short legs and now we have to get back to work,” said Macri.

When asked if he would run in the PASO primaries, Macri replied that “I have not signed up. I think it is time to fight for ideas and values, not for my own. I am in the field, I will always be in the field. I will not abandon the people. I feel that I sowed, I put the seed, but now the tree belongs to all Argentines,” Macri pointed out.

Regarding motions to suppress the PASO system, Macri argued it would be like “changing the rules in the middle of the game.”

“It is not serious,” he added. “That is what condemns us. Anyway, if they suspend them, Juntos por el Cambio will hold its primary elections, with a single ballot. The first ones who have to give the example that we have to compete are those of Juntos por el Cambio,” he said.

Macri added that JxC needed to “show that the change is going to be serious, with depth, with conviction. A very, very deep change is coming in Argentina. Next year we are going to start a new era and we need young people to join us; otherwise, nothing makes sense.”

The former head of state also underlined that whoever picks the baton from Alberto Fernández will need to deal with inflation above 100%, [and] public companies losing fortunes, ... Everything upside down again, like in 2015, but worse.“

Meanwhile, Rodríguez Larreta insisted that ”Macri does candidate things,“ but stressed that his decision to run in 2023 will not hinge on whatever the former president does.

Asked if Macri would be a candidate in 2023, Larreta replied that ”he has every right to be one.”