Buenos Aires (EFE).- The Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, will be the sole candidate for president for the ruling party in the elections in Argentina, which will take place next October, the Union for the Homeland coalition announced this Friday.
“Union for the Homeland has a UNITY list. Due to institutional, political and social responsibility, our space has decided to form a list of unity that will represent us in the next elections”, the official account of the new name of the Frente de Todos, the coalition that governs Argentina, published this Friday.
At midnight this Saturday, Argentina closes the deadline for the presentation of applicants for the primary, open, simultaneous and mandatory elections, known as PASO, formally beginning the campaign for those elections, which will be held on August 13.
The ruling coalition
Despite the fact that this Thursday the Minister of the Interior, Eduardo de Pedro, made his candidacy official and on the same day the Argentine ambassador to Brazil, Daniel Scioli, had ratified his, the ruling coalition announced late on Friday the single integrated formula by Massa and the current chief of staff, Agustín Rossi.
“Our presidential candidate will be @SergioMassa and @RossiAgustinOk will accompany him as a vice-presidential candidate. We recognize the comrades @wadodecorrido and @danielscioli, who bet on the unity of Peronism, putting the collective before the individual,” the official coalition announced on its Twitter account.
According to this publication, both De Pedro, a person very close to the vice president, Cristina Fernández, and Scioli, who was number 2 of the Executive in the presidency of Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007), accepted the unity candidacy to avoid participating in the PASO and thus focus on the campaign for the presidential elections in October.
Massa, 51, has been Minister of the Economy since July 28, 2022, after having been a deputy and mayor of Tigre (Buenos Aires province).
Rossi, 63, is the chief of staff of the Alberto Fernández government, after having been a councilor in Rosario, a Mercosur parliamentarian, deputy and defense minister between 2019 and 2021.
Rossi himself, very close to the Argentine president, had recently announced that he would participate in the PASO with his own candidacy.
Both President Fernández and the vice president and former president had given up their options to run as candidates in the October 22 elections.