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ARGENTINA | 08-02-2023 12:55

Elisa 'Lilita' Carrió preaches 'unity' as she confirms presidential run

Coalición Cívica-ARI leader Elisa Carrió announces presidential run and says she will be a "candidate of unity" for the opposition Juntos por el Cambio coalition.

Veteran opposition leader Elisa ‘Lilita’ Carrió has announced she intends to run for president once again in the upcoming 2023 elections.

Speaking during a radio interview with journalist Jorge Lanata on Wednesday, the 66-year-old Coalición Cívica-ARI leader said that her party intended put up a presidential hopeful in upcoming primaries for the opposition Juntos por el Cambio coalition. 

"The Civic Coalition is going to have a candidate and it is going to be me," she remarked.

"I intend for there to be a great electoral offering in terms of the presidency and governors, and unity for lists of lawmakers," said Lilita, confirming she would compete for the presidency.

Carrió, a three-time presidential candidate who ran for the nation's highest office in 2003, 2007 and 2011, has been one of Argentina's most outspoken lawmakers for 25 years. She stepped down as a lawmaker in the aftermath of the 2019 elections.

Carrió said that her candidacy would represent a “guarantee of unity” for the opposition coalition, though she admitted her chances of winning the nomination were unlikely.

"I don't intend to win, I intend that there should not be a debate to the death in Juntos por el Cambio," said the firebrand politician, one of the founding members of the Cambiemos coalition that took Mauricio Macri to the Casa Rosada in the 2015 elections.

This is not the first time of late that Carrió has discussed the possibility of a run for the Casa Rosada. Some political analysts doubt the veracity of her presidential ambitions and believe she is only entering the race in order to negotiate better positions for allies on the coalition’s electoral slates.

Carrió, however, was adamant on Wednesday that she was in it to win it.

“I would be a candidate for president. I want to achieve the unity of the lists. I am the founder of Juntos por el Cambio, [and] the first objective is to achieve unity for everyone," she declared.

An often controversial and outspoken figure, Carrió is known for her fiery temperament and denunciations of alleged government corruption.

Confirmation of her intention to run injects a new voice into the presidential race and the upcoming opposition primaries, which currently look set to be dominated by PRO party frontrunners Horacio Rodríguez Larreta and Patricia Bullrich.

Carrió’s party is the minority member of the three partners in the Juntos por el Cambio coalition. 

The third leg of the trident, the Unión Cívica Radical (UCR), has not yet decided who it will back in the race, though Jujuy Province Governor Gerardo Morales and national lawmaker Facundo Manes are the most likely candidates.

 

–– TIMES/PERFIL

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