Vice-President Cobos withdraws from presidential race

After the Radical Party’s National Committee announced that the UCR would back Ricardo Alfonsín’s presidential candidacy, Vice-President Julio Cobos announced that he would be stepping down from the race since he said there was no point in going “against the party’s official candidate.”

“The party has issued an official resolution, naming him the UCR’s official candidate, so I will not be running against Alfonsín in the primaries,” he said.

“As long as that resolution remains in effect, I will not be participating in the August primaries,” he said, adding that would “respect the party’s decision,” but warning that he believes that the UCR “is shutting down on itself.”

The Vice-President said that even though he always respects the party’s decisions, he’s got no choice but to ask the UCR to “open up to the people.”

“This is the moment in which we’re supposed to join our potential allies” in the presidential race, he explained, and said he regretted that while trying to figure out their candidate, “the party failed to create an electoral platform that would eventually join other progressive political forces” in order to beat the Kirchnerites in October.

He concluded, however, that if this decision actually benefits Ricardo Alfonsín, then he will join him in the race as “a sergeant and a soldier.”