Confirmed: Pichetto will be Macri's vice presidential running mate

The Peronist Senator Miguel Pichetto will be Macri's vice presidential running mate, just as LPO exclusively anticipated, and it was confirmed to LPO in the presence of the man from Río Negro and the Administration.

The polls led the president to dismiss the customary advice of Jaime Durán Barba and Marcos Peña, who were reluctant to open the ballot to someone outside of the hard core PRO, and even less so to someone unconnected to Cambiemos.

Macri has become pragmatic in the last few hours and has decided to set aside the advice from that pair of marketeers, demonstrating an act of openness that he considers key to have a chance at reelection.

Two events caused the candidature to take hold of the Casa Rosada: the rejection of Macri's offer of the vice presidential ticket by Ernesto Sanz and the apparent loss of ground for the Federal Alternative.

Macri believed that Sanz was the best option, but the man from Mendoza sustains his rejection. That's why the Radicals began to throw out names like Karina Banfi, Laura Montero and Luis Brandoni. This got Macri upset with the Radicals because he believes that they didn't bring him a proposal that would later be palatable at the North Park convention. At that convention, nevertheless, the president of the UCR, Alfredo Cornejo, had asked the "Peronist Republicans" to integrate with Cambiemos to not lose in the first round.

On the matter of the Federal Alternative, the Administration always hoped that they'd have a floor high enough to withstand a split Peronist vote. But after the support of the governors and Sergio Massa's possible agreement with the Fernández, at the Casa Rosada they believe that floor will fall, and that's why they prefer to integrate Pichetto with Cambiemos.

The move of choosing Pichetto has Sanz's own endorsement, and it was bolstered by Rogelio Frigerio, the Interior minister who's the Peronist contact in the Administration. Even Elisa Lilita Carrió, enemy of Peronism, presented herself in favor of the ballot in Santa Fe, where she went to support José Corral this Tuesday. "I get along well with Pichetto, he's an institutionalist. With him we draw up the best laws," said Lilita.

If they win, the Rionegran would be a linchpin in the Senate, where the Administration has no figures of that caliber. Furthermore, Pichetto would be essential regarding the relationships with the governors in a second term. The Rionegran gave the first signal that he would accept such an offer when he said he'd vote for Macri in a run-off. This Tuesday he again sent another signal to Macri saying that his process would finish "in 2023."