Viviana Canosa’s provocative style has sent opposition antennae twitching. The libertarians under Javier Milei affirm that they have made her an offer, which she has declined – for now.
"She was summoned and did not accept," a well-informed source of La Libertad Avanza revealed. The decision to invite her to participate in politics, those close to Milei confirm, stems from her image measuring well in the opinion polls assessing her and other potential candidates. The numbers were not leaked but are said to be auspicious.
Canosa and Milei consider themselves to be "friends" with the former hosting the economist’s presentation of his new book El camino del libertario at the Book Fair a couple of weeks ago.
At that event, the journalist gave the lawmaker a chance to defend himself against the charges of plagiarism aimed at another of his books Pandenomics, as exclusively revealed by Noticias magazine. But he fudged it: "Well, let’s just say, err..." was all he managed to utter.
Interested parties
Canosa is also on the radar of the main opposition Juntos por el Cambio coalition who, like Milei, have added her to their list of images to be assessed with striking results.
At a meeting of the campaign team numbers from a survey in Greater Buenos Aires (especially La Matanza) came up showing that the positive image of the television hostess to outstripped her negative by nine points – a better performance than the other potential mayoral candidates in La Matanza, such as the former education minister Alejandro Finocchiaro or the social activist Héctor ‘Toty’ Flores.
Why La Matanza? Viviana Canosa is domiciled in the City but she has been working in different parts of La Matanza for some time, gathering donations for canteens and even raising money to start up a funeral parlour in a shantytown.
In other words, in that electoral constituency she is known not only because of her television appearances but also due to her neighbourhood work on the ground.
Antecedents
The last time the outspoken TV star was sounded out in opinion polls was in late 2020 when she conversed with different parties. She even said in a December interview with the La Nación +TV channel that she was interested in dedicating herself to politics in the future.
“I don’t think that my incursion into politics will start the day after tomorrow, nor next year, but I’m going to think about it, no doubt about that,” she declared.
“I want a better country for my daughter and everybody’s children. I do want an egalitarian country but one which levels upwards, not downwards,” she added, revealing that Peronists, liberals and supporters of Mauricio Macri were all making her offers to join them.
In terms of ratings, the Canosa phenomenon – complete with her indignant style of news commentary – is a success which has turned into a headache for competitors. The journalist generally wins out in her segment, obliging other news channels to evaluate their strategies moving forward.
So when will she take the leap into politics? She has already served notice that she is interested but for now she has not closed a deal with anybody and 2023 is still a long way away. Perhaps we will have news soon.
Comments