Santa Fe

Governor-elect Maximiliano Pullaro put on stage for the first time yesterday the cabinet with which he will begin his administration on December 10. With the same founding imprint with which the United to Change Santa Fe alliance was presented in that town in the Garay department on April 25, six and a half months later, and with all the electoral objectives achieved, it returned to that coastal enclave with the officials who will occupy the first line of management and a representative from each of the member parties of Unidos. It was a sort of two in one, since the meeting served as a presentation and first cabinet meeting.

Beyond the symbolic nature of the chosen location, the provincial cabinet met with its members but without access by the press. “We form a plural team but with a common objective: to work actively, every day, to meet the needs of the entire province and carry out the transformations that are needed,” noted Pullaro. “We know that these are difficult times, but we trust in people who have experience, capacity and character to carry out the projects we proposed,” he described to his team.

Although almost all the names had already transcended Publicly, there were expectations about joining the radical ministerial staff Fabian Bastia at the head of the Government and Public Innovation portfolio, replacing Senator Felipe Michlig, who at the last minute declined the position and will assume his seventh term as senator.

Bastía is a radical, from San Justo, and was going to be the head of the UCR Deputies bench. His move to the Executive leaves a free seat that will be assumed by Germán Scavuzzo, from Radicales Libres, an ally of Mayor Pablo Javkin.

José GoityMinister of Education.

Pablo OlivaresEconomy Minister.

Lisandro Enrico, Minister of Public Works.

Gustavo PucciniMinister of Development and Productive Infrastructure.

Susana RuedaMinister of Culture.

Silvia CiancioMinister of Health.

Roald BáscoloMinister of Labor, Employment and Social Security.

Enrique EstevezMinister of Environment and Climate Change.

Victoria TejedaMinister of Equality and Human Development.

Pablo CoccocioniMinister of Security and Justice.

They were also presented as State Prosecutor, Domingo Rondina; and the General Secretaries, Juan Cruz Candido; of Institutional Linkage, Julian Galdeano; of Cooperation, Christian Cunha; and Communication, Luis Persello. The only one absent due to agenda issues was the mayor of Santa Fe, Emilio Jatónwho will take charge of the Secretary of Human Rights.

Pullaro reserved names from his close circle for the first line of ministries. These are the cases of Puccini, a lifelong militancy friend and former collaborator of his when he was Minister of Security; Coccocioni also comes from that experience and in his case he managed the Penitentiary Service; Olivares, who was deputy to former minister Gonzalo Saglione (2015-2019), is the main economic reference of the Santa Fe UCR; Goity, former dean of Humanities at UNR; Enrico, political partner in the UCR and the General López department; Silvia Ciancio and Victoria Tejeda, both enrolled in the Evolution sector of the UCR commanded by Pullaro (the first is also from Elortondo, General López).

To that list we must add Bastía, who in the current Legislature was one of Pullaro’s supporters, as well as Juan Cruz Cándido, who will occupy one of the four secretaries that will report directly to the governor. Lesser known but very close to Pullaro is Daniel DiLenawho will be in charge of the Santa Fe Lottery, one of the key funds of the provincial State.

Outside the first ring of trust, there are the portfolios and secretaries that will command representatives of parties and spaces allied to Unidos para Cambiar Santa Fe. Roald Báscolo of the PRO larretista led by vice-governor Gisela Scaglia; Estévez from the socialism sector led by Clara García and Mónica Fein; Susana Rueda for Bonfattism; Julián Galdeano for the non-Pullarist UCR allied with Carolina Losada, and the president of the PRO, Cristian Cunha, for pure Macriism.

Looked at by geographical origin, the future cabinet has a clear predominance from the south of the province. Six of the eleven ministers are from Rosario (Rueda, Estévez, Goity) and the General López department (Enrico, Ciancio, Puccini), three from the center (Tejeda de Gálvez and Olivares and Coccocioni from Santa Fe) and two from the north (Bastía de San Justo and Báscolo de Reconquista). The four secretaries of State are from Rosario and the State Attorney from the provincial capital. It should be remembered that the governor is from Hughes although he has lived in Rosario for years, and the lieutenant governor is a native of Gálvez.

In terms of gender, it was not a determining variable when it came to assembly. In addition to Vice Scaglia, whom the governor empowered to have a role in different areas of the government, of the eleven ministries and four secretariats, only three cases will be handled by women (Health, Culture and Human Development).

Omar Perotti is one of those who best cultivates the ability to speak without saying, elaborate pompous discursive detours to avoid definitions. Much less do they make him say what he doesn’t want. But yesterday, without anyone expecting it, he made an exception and without any question of politics or government at stake, he defined himself, and how! And they all turned to look at him, with various expressions.

In a one-on-one by radio Boing the governor explained at ease about his management, the conditions of the pandemic and the drought, etc. But taken to the terrain of the upcoming general elections, at the national level he entered the arena alone and surprised. He affirmed that on October 22 he will vote for the candidate of the Union for the Fatherland, Sergio Massa, for president of the Nation. But faced with the possibility of a runoff for Patricia Bullrich, of Juntos por el Cambio, or Javier Milei, of La Libertad Avanza, Perotti, without being pressured, sided with one: “In that option, I vote for Milei,” he released.

In this way, the candidate for the first provincial deputy for the Peronist coalition Juntos Avancemos endorsed the option that Maximiliano Pullaro, winner of the internal contest for governor on the United to Change Santa Fe front, had also praised the day before. Of course, the radical anticipated his I vote for Milei, but before an eventual ballotage between Sergio Massa and the libertarian; that is, without his first choice, Bullrich (his original choice for him was the defeated Horacio Rodríguez Larreta).

Perotti also clarified the same. In October he will vote for Massa, but in the event that the Economy Minister is relegated to third place and there is a second round, the governor from Rafael already knows what to do. “I think we’ve already seen Bullrich and I don’t want that stage again. One wants Massa to be the president, and if there is a ballot, Massa goes. But I have no doubts about that option,” he said.

Aware that his statements would bring his own dust and that of others, he added: “Many will be able to say ‘what is he saying’. And I say it because I am sorry: the expectations that were generated with Macri and the best team of the last 50 years and others were not good. And why not give the alternative to someone who poses something differently”, he postulated.

He added antecedents of having added non-partisans to his political team outside “the caste.” “People who come with a more sensitive look,” Perotti went on to say, although he stressed: “I hope that option is not given, we are going to work so that Massa is in that place.”

Perotti’s preference was interpreted close to him as a nod to the libertarian’s Santa Fe voter, but it also made noise. In the afternoon he was forced to clarify and reinforce his party membership. “Neither Bullrich nor Milei. On September 10 we are going to win in Santa Fe and on October 22 it is with Sergio Massa for the Nation,” he posted on Twitter.

From different sectors of the PJ they corrected it with emphasis. The head of the party, Ricardo Olivera, was emphatic: “There are three candidates but two country models, therefore there is no margin for Massa not to be in that eventual second round. I vote for Massa, there is no other possibility, nor do I think in another option”.

The candidate for governor Marcelo Lewandowski subscribed to the same corrective tweet from Perotti: neither Bullrich nor Milei, only Massa.

“We see no other option than Sergio Massa, and that is why we are working to make him our president,” said Florencia Carignano, head of Migration and candidate for national deputy. Her companion on the list, Marilyn Sacnun, stated: “Between Milei and Bullrich it is to choose between Dracula and Frankenstein. Let’s fight with conviction…”, she demanded in a recurring reproach for her with the Rafaelino.

No socialist leader consulted responded, perhaps so as not to have to explain the same about Pullaro.

Carlos Del Frade, on the other hand, expressed “sadness and anger” for the two referents of the PJ and the UCR who “turned in favor of a neo-fascist who will return to the ’90s.” He considered it proof of the existence of the “PUS, the only party in Santa Fe, politics subordinated to economic power,” and hoped that “the progressive sectors of all forces come to constitute a possibility of a broad front that at least shelters us in these times to come.”