The Civic Radical Union (UCR) has set December 12th at 2:00 PM at the party's national headquarters as the date and time for the plenary session to renew authorities, which will appoint the successor to Senator and elected National Deputy Martín Lousteau as president of the National Committee.
In keeping with a long-standing tradition in radicalism, the call, unanimously approved for the leadership change, is scheduled for after December 10th, the date on which the restructuring of the legislative structure will take place.
The Delegates' Plenary, which consists of four representatives per province, plus two representatives from the Radical Youth, the Purple Band, the Intendants' Forum, the Radical Workers' Organization, and UCR Diversity, is an event that will appoint the new party leadership and marks the end of the Lousteau era. He was never able to unify the entirety of the radicalism and remained too isolated due to his persistent critical stance towards the government.
As a national senator, he voted alone on several occasions within the bloc he presides over, Eduardo 'Peteco' Vischi, as in his famous speech against the Bases Law, which the rest of the radicalism supported.
This confrontational stance towards the Casa Rosada earned him powerful criticism from many of the radicalism's leaders who accommodated themselves in a position of docility and conciliation towards the national Executive Branch, beyond the ups and downs in the relationship with Javier Milei.
Lousteau's cycle at the head of the UCR coincided with the split in the Chamber of Deputies, which divided between those who remained in the original bloc with complacent positions towards the government, led by Rodrigo de Loredo, the dissenters who formed 'Democracy Forever' to accentuate an opposing profile, and the 'radicals with wigs' from the Interior League who ended up merged in La Libertad Avanza.
With no intentions of leading a new term, and with one foot inside the incipient 'Provincias Unidas' coalition, Lousteau will leave the place open, and the race for succession has already begun.
Beyond the nuances, all the names being considered for the top party position are leaders much more conciliatory with the national government, marking an inevitable change of era.
The natural candidate and best-positioned in the race is the governor of Corrientes, Gustavo Valdés, the only radical who won the elections in his district without handing over the organization to an asymmetric agreement with La Libertad Avanza.
Other governors who also won in their districts are Mendoza's Alfredo Cornejo and Chaco's Leandro Zdero, but in both cases the organization was managed by the Casa Rosada and the level of concessions to the national officialism was extremely high in terms of the name of the electoral alliance (La Libertad Avanza Front) and the main candidacies in the list composition.
Valdés, along with his fellow party members from Santa Fe, Maximiliano Pullaro, and from Jujuy, Carlos Sadir, competed under the 'Provincias Unidas' umbrella: only the Corrientes governor was victorious and left the libertarian Lisandro Almirón far behind in fourth place.
In this sense, the Corrientes governor arrives strengthened, with renewed credentials for the instance prior to the appointment of the next head of the National Committee.
'Valdés is the clearest name, but he has not made the decision,' sources consulted by the Argentine News Agency cautiously stated.
Those encouraging Valdés's candidacy fear that Cornejo will challenge him for control of the party.
'The bulk of the delegates are neither violet nor violaceous,' they warned, marking the terrain for the Cornejo faction.
'The problem is the Cornejo faction, which could try to impose Pamela Verasay,' sources close to the former Economy Minister and leader of the 'Evolución' radical stream highlighted.
Before the leadership of the National Committee is defined, radicalism must resolve the likely reunification of its legislative blocs in the Chamber of Deputies.
In total, there will be only about a dozen radical deputies, but the condition for achieving the unification of the two factions (UCR and 'Democracy Forever') lies in the fact that the president of the resulting unity bloc does not respond to any of the 'extremes'.
'The idea is that the president is not an 'extremist'. It doesn't interest Lousteau, it's not the problem.'
