“We are satisfied with the campaign we ran. We are cautious, but you can feel the support on the street.” From the Together for Change environment they avoided any reference to the possibility of winning in the first round in the elections in Chaco. They were sure that they had a much better chance of winning even in a runoff. For them, winning the governorship in the first round this Sunday was “a crash“But the crash happened.
In a political scenario where surprises are increasingly the norm, the radical Leandro Zdero He prevailed in the province and took the governorship from Jorge Capitanich (Frente Chaqueño), thus ending 16 consecutive years of Peronism.
With more than 99.5% of the tables counted, Zdero obtained 46.16% of the votes against 41.69% that Capitanich had. The third candidate, Gustavo Martínez (CER), was very relegated in the fight and barely added 5% of the votes.
In 2019 Capitanich had won the governorship with almost 50 percent of the votes. In this Sunday’s elections his performance is plummeted almost ten points.
His fall marks the seventh defeat for an ruling party in 2023 where the anger with politics is palpable: Mariano Arcioni in Chubut, Alicia Kirchner in Santa Cruz, Omar Perotti in Santa Fe, Alberto Rodríguez Saá in San Luis, Sergio Uñac in San Juan, Marcos Koopmann in Neuquén and now Jorge Capitanich .
It also confirms a profound territorial deterioration of the electoral power of Peronism, which with Chaco accumulated defeats in six of those provincial elections.
“It is time to get out of so much darkness, so much impunity, and we are going to do it with great responsibility. I want to thank those who voted for us and supported us and those who voted for other political forces,” Zdero said from the stage of a bunker. which was packed.
At his side flanked him Patricia Bullrich, who had arrived in the province shortly before. “Pato” had promised that he would travel to accompany him, waiting for a runoff outcome. Also on stage were Carolina Lozada, Luis Naidenoff, Ricardo López Murphy and the governor of Corrientes, also a radical Gustavo Valdesand one of the main political supports for Zdero’s nomination.
“Tonight is a huge thank you to all the Chaco residents who opened their doors and their hearts to us. We listened to their pain, but we also undertook together the possibility of building this dream to repair the province,” added the governor-elect.
It was a speech where he raised the flags of austerity, education and security, an item that aroused more applause than any other among the public. In the previous days it had been one of the concerns most mentioned in the surveys he conducted Clarion in the streets of Chaco.
Zdero also thanked Bullrich for his support and gave him the microphone to move forward with the closing of the event. “We were convinced that there is a profound decision to change the lives of the Chaco people. I want to congratulate you for the great step you took today to free his province from Kirchnerism. The battle they fought is historic“said the candidate.
The radical crash began shortly before 7 p.m., when the first results arrived on the giant screens that were installed in the La Nuit bowling alley, located on the central Juan Domingo Perón street, in Resistencia. These were data from only 30% of the tables, but they showed a trend that would not be reversed. Zdero surpassed the barrier of 45 points, the number he needed to win the governorship.
There was a scream similar to a goal. It was a celebration of relief. “We didn’t expect it. We thought we had at least six points of difference, but I didn’t think we could win in the first round“he told Clarion one of the main references of the UCR in the province.
The The other side was the Capitanich bunker, where long faces were seen. “We are going to wait for the data from 50% of the tables to be available before speaking,” they repeated with amazement. Until Saturday afternoon they were confident of winning in the first round. With that objective they had made an enormous investment in social assistance, transfers to permanent staff of public sector employees, promises that were pending. The people did not accompany.
Shortly before 9 p.m. Capitanich called Zdero and congratulated him on the victory. He made available the tools for an orderly transition that should start this week. Half an hour later Coqui publicly acknowledged defeat and said that the Chaco he leaves “is not a fiefdom”.
Zdero’s victory had begun to take shape in the PASO on June 18, when Together for Change had been the most voted force in the province, reaching 42 points. It was an election marked by the proximity to the femicide of Cecilia Strzyzowski, that damaged trust in Capitanich due to the connection with the Sena Clanthe picketers accused of the young woman’s death.
They were also crossed by a absenteeism notable, where only 62 percent of Chaco residents went to the polls. Those data grew for this vote, reaching 68%. “We needed to grow just a couple of points to break that barrier,” was the reading they had made from radicalism. But they saw it as a disaster.
Zdero had said that Capitanich left a “short wick bomb“. Now he will have to take charge of turning it off starting in December.
