Melconián rules out Macri as Buenos Aires deputy

Economist Carlos Melconián, who is politically aligned with Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri’s centre-right PRO party, yesterday dismissed rumours that the latter would be presenting himself as a candidate for deputy for Buenos Aires province at the midterm elections this October.

Melconián assured that “Mauricio is a presidential candidate (for 2015,)” and affirmed that “we must calm any anxieties, including our own.”

“I have spoken with him in private about the matter and he has said that he will not be a candidate for deputy, (and) much less would he resign from his (current) post,” Melconián affirmed, adding that Macri would “only leave the city government to become a provincial candidate in exceptional circumstances, if the country entered into an abyss.”

He went on: “As this is not the case, I would comprehensively say no,” although he emphasized that the legislative elections would be crucial in determining the country’s future, suggesting there “is no 2015 without 2013,” and speculating that PRO is likely to “form an electoral front in (Buenos Aires) province with parties which have similar ideas and with its own candidates.”

Melconián asserted that the country’s situation is “complicated but not extraordinary, (as) there are no grave institutional problems,” praised the low-profile approach of the PRO and dismissed an alliance with other opposition parties which would entail a “grab bag.”

Herald with Telam