Kirchnerism and the PRO question the suspension of the PASO primaries and cast doubt on their approval in Congress

The Government's intention to move forward with the suspension of the PASO primaries has once again drawn criticism from various sectors. While the ruling party accelerates negotiations to obtain the electoral reform committee report in the Senate this Tuesday, Kirchnerism and the PRO questioned the push to change the rules of the game less than a year before the presidential election. In recent hours, the head of the Unión por la Patria bloc in the Chamber of Deputies, Germán Martínez, and the national senator for Misiones and head of the PRO caucus in the Senate, Martín Goerling, agreed in criticizing Javier Milei's administration over this official move. Patricia Bullrich and Jorge Capitanich. Debate in the Senate's Constitutional Affairs Committee Santiago Filipuzzi Goerling even questioned the ruling party's real chances of advancing the reform next Tuesday. He recalled that it must first gather ten signatures to obtain a committee report and then reach 37 votes on the floor to approve the bill. "I don't see it as likely that they have the votes," he said in an interview with Radio con Vos this Sunday. The politician also considered it unlikely that the committee would issue a report immediately if the amendments are presented on the same day the debate resumes. "No senator is going to take on the responsibility of issuing a report with amendments proposed that same Tuesday," he stated. He also criticized the way the Government is seeking to speed up the handling of the bill in the Senate and warned that his bloc will not support changes without a deeper prior discussion. Days earlier, Martín Menem called for speeding up the suspension of the PASO and anticipated it could happen within 15 days Fabián Marelli "The Government understands that it wants to go to an election to reelect Milei without the PASO, what electoral strategy suits it, and that is what it is betting on." "In principle, we, personally, believe that the PASO system should not be touched, least of all so close to an election," he said. And he added: "If the PASO law has to be changed, it must be done seriously and by consensus, not by force, because afterwards it is the system that suffers." He also warned about the risks of making changes based on short-term political needs. "The legislative election in each province has its candidates; here the whole country is going to elect a president and vice president. Here the rules are clear; they cannot be changed and tampered with according to the electoral tactics or strategy of the government of the day," he said. Criticism from the opposition For his part, Germán Martínez linked the official attempt to an electoral strategy and argued that the Government seeks to alter the current scheme because it does not trust its chances of winning a possible runoff. "They are obsessed with eliminating the PASO because they feel they don't win any runoff; they want to create by any means a situation where they can win with 40 points and a 10-point lead," said the Unión por la Patria leader in an interview with Radio Splendid. Germán Martínez rejected the suspension of the PASO Valeria Rotman The Peronist lawmaker defended the system of open, simultaneous, and mandatory primary elections. "We have had and still have a very clear position on the primary system. Not only do we think it is an element that works in favor of democratic life, that citizens participate in the candidate selection process," he said. Martínez stated, however, that the possible elimination of the primaries will not prevent Unión por la Patria from resolving its candidacies. "If they eliminate the PASO, we will find a way to define whatever needs to be defined, and we will do it together," he said. And he added: "In any case, what the Government doesn't know is that we will always have an articulated and unified proposal and that we are going to win in the first round."