Congressional candidates Elisa Carrió (Civic and Social Accord) and Daniel Scioli (Justicialist Victory Front) denied remarks made by leaders of the opposition Unión-PRO, who claimed their parties were scheming against Unión-PRO in the midterm campaign. Margarita Stolbizer meanwhile said Peronists are planning to reunite in a move to launch City Mayor Mauricio Macri to the presidency in 2011.

Francisco De Narváez, who leads the centre-right Unión-PRO ticket in Buenos Aires province, told reporters yesterday that Carrió and the pro-government Peronists had agreed to attack Unión-PRO in order to drag political support toward their parties.

"It's impossible for us (Carrió and Kirchner) to discuss anything with Néstor Kirchner, who heads an illegal organization, which we have reported to the courts," said Carrió, adding that De Narváez and Kirchner are close and both "represent different factions of the same political party: the Peronism." Last year, Carrió filed several lawsuits against Néstor Kirchner, accusing him of malfeasance and misuse of public assets.

De Narváez's comments were seen as a reaction to statements made by Carrió, who denounced there was a "hidden pact" between both factions of the Peronism, which she said would reunite after the midterm ballot.

"There are only two viable projects in Argentina: the Peronist party, with its two faces, represented by the banality of Big Brother in Law (Gran Cuñado) and the Civic Accord, represented by the Socialists, Radicals, Peronists and the people in the countryside," she said today.

The founder of the ARI and the Civic Coalition also criticized the recent nationalization of private companies by the Kirchner administration, claiming "Néstor Kirchner is not seeking a national interest with the expropriation, but he is trying to take over the companies for his personal interest."

Margarita Stolbizer, head of the congressional slate of the Social and Civic Accord in Buenos Aires province, spared no harsh world to slam her opponent, Néstor Kirchner. "He is finished, as 70 percent of the people are against them," Stolbizer said.

Echoing Carrió's comments, Stolbizer also said that Kirchnerites and dissident Peronists "will end up together" and claimed that would happen before the 2011 presidential election.

"They will reunite, not because they want to support Kirchner, but because (City Mayor Mauricio) Macri needs the political structure of the Peronist party to run for president in 2011," she added.

Buenos Aires Governor Daniel Scioli, also dismissed reports suggesting the government might have initiated talks with Carrió's Social and Civic Accord. "The only pact we have is with the families of Buenos Aires province," he told reporters during a radio interview this morning.

"We weren't the ones who started talking about pacts," Scioli said, reacting to the comments made by De Narváez. "I'd rather we paid more attention to managing the province," Scioli concluded.