MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Buenos Aires City ruling party dealt major blow by Milei's LLA

Spokesman Adorni (C) got over 30% of the vote

Argentine Presidential Spokesman Manuel Adorni prevailed in Sunday's elections at the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, as President Javier Milei's La Libertad Avanza (LLA) swept former President Mauricio Macri's Propuesta Republicana (PRO) to third place in the country's capital, where Federal Congresswoman Silvia Lospennato got only 15.93% of the vote.

Adorni's 30.13% was slightly ahead of the 27.34% garnered by Ahora Buenos Aires of Leandro Santoro and former bank robber Alejandro “Pitu” Salvatierra, who has made it to the city's legislature. He has turned his life around, becoming a well-known TV panelist, whose election represents a narrative of redemption and reintegration into society per CABA standards.

Former Macri aide and two-time Mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta came fourth with 8.07%. Voter turnout was low at 53.27%, a significant drop from 76.7% in 2023 and 73.4% in 2021.

The PRO, which still rules the City through Mayor Jorge Macri (the former president's cousin), faced a historic defeat signaling a shift of center-right voters to LLA.

“These are not the results we expected”, admitted Lospennato, who once jumped into the limelight for endorsing the decriminalization of abortion, with which Buenos Aires' conservative constituency is at odds. The PRO “stopped representing the people of Buenos Aires,” Santoro concurred.

Other results were: 5. Vanina Biasi (Frente de Izquierda) 3.16%; 6. Ramiro Marra (UCeDé) 2.61%; 7. Paula Olivetto (Civic Coalition) 2.5%; 8. Lula Levy (Evolution - a front name for the once powerful Radical Civic Union - UCR) 2.31%. 9. Alejandro Kim (Principles and Values) 2.03%, 10. Ricardo Caruso Lombardi (MID) 1.67%; 11. Yamil Santoro (Unión Porteña Libertaria) 0.62%; 12. Juan Manuel Abal Medina (Seamos Libres) 0.51%; 13, Federico Winokur (La Izquierda en la Ciudad) 0.38%; 14. Eva Koutsovitis (Confluence - For Equality and Sovereignty) 0.33%; 15. Mila Zurbriggen (The Movement) 0.2%; 16. César Biondini (Frente Patriota Federal) 0.16%; 17. Marcelo Peretta (Movimiento Plural) 0.13%.

Adorni won in upper-class Communes 1, 2, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, while Federal Congressman Santoro came first in the lower to middle-class Communes 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, and 15, with the PRO sinking to the point of winning no Commune at all less than two years after clinching the mayorship over Santoro. It came in second in Communes 2, 13, and 14 and third elsewhere.

Despite this outcome, Macri said he would not “retire” from politics and resume talks with LLA, ahead of the federal mid-term elections.