Buenos Aires Mayor Larreta Launches Argentina Presidential Run
(Bloomberg) -- Buenos Aires Mayor Horacio Rodriguez Larreta said Thursday he will seek the presidency of Argentina, kicking off his campaign as a top contender amid a crowded field of candidates ahead of the election in October.
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“I want to be president so that together we end with the hate and we transform our country forever,” Larreta said in a campaign video posted on social media, speaking from an isolated lighthouse in Patagonia.
A key opposition leader who has governed the country’s capital for two terms, Larreta is vying for the presidency with a centrist, business-friendly platform as the nation suffers through inflation near 100%, poverty affecting close to 40% of the population and no access to international debt markets after a sovereign default.
With less than six months to mandatory primary elections, the fight for the candidacies in Argentina’s two main coalitions is heating up. The ruling Peronist alliance is in the middle of intense internal struggles, with President Alberto Fernandez hinting he would seek a second term despite significant push back from groups supporting his powerful vice president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.
Read More: Argentina’s Dominant Political Force Looks Into Electoral Abyss
A graduate of Harvard Business School, Larreta, 57, has built a robust campaign staff and largely maintained positive approval ratings of around 50% after governing through the pandemic. But for him to win the candidacy of the center-right coalition, he would need first to compete with other top opposition rivals, potentially including former security minister Patricia Bullrich and congresswoman Maria Eugenia Vidal.
Former President Mauricio Macri, a longtime ally of all three candidates whose support is seen as crucial to obtain the nomination, met with each of them in recent weeks but hasn’t yet explicitly endorsed anyone.
In an interview with Bloomberg News in October, Larreta said Argentina’s next government should aim to have a free-floating exchange rate and dismantle the cobweb of currency controls established by the current administration to keep the official rate artificially overvalued.
Read More: Argentina Needs a Free-Floating Peso, Opposition Leader Says
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