2023-09-18 13:00:00
The traditional configuration of the Municipal Council of Bariloche, without marked hegemonies or predominances, will be confirmed starting in December in a new stage, with a cast of 11 councilors distributed in six blocks, three of them single-person.
They will have to interact with Mayor Walter Cortés, of the Union and Liberty party, who also did not gather enough votes to waste, since it barely reached 19.6%. The Council will be chaired by the current councilor Gerardo del Rio (also from the PUL), who assured that atomization will not be a problem, although he knows that it will require “intense work” in the search for agreements. He assessed that the political negotiation will be harmonious, because “everyone showed a willingness to support.”
He assured that Cortés’ leadership will draw the line and hopes to gain support for his main projects, because he already presented them “clearly” in the campaign and there can be no surprises for anyone. Del Río pointed out that they plan to declare a housing emergency and a road emergency, and that they will promote agreements with private parties that Cortés has already begun to manage to obtain lands destined to generate 1,000 social lots.
Del Río said the same regarding the new government’s measures that will aim to address the transportation crisis and the conversion of the waste landfill.
In his opinion, the Council will not have room to confine itself to the legislative technicalities, but must quickly get involved “in everything necessary to decompress the serious social situation.”
The Deliberative Body will be made up of three representatives of the PUL, another three from Juntos Somos Río Negro (the current ruling party), two from Including Bariloche, plus three single-person blocks: those of Nos Une Río Negro, Together for Change and Primero Río Negro.
There will be four councilors among them who are already councilors today and will repeat a new mandate. One of them is Roxana Ferreyra (Nos Une), who assured that “It is going to be a complex Council, with limited officialdom”, with whom he hopes to have good harmony because they come from “similar ideologies”, since they share origins in Peronism.
Ferreyra said that it will be necessary to “find agreements so that the city is represented” and that there must be a self-critical reading of “why so many people did not go to vote and why there is this boredom with politics.”
Del Río expressed himself in the same sense when pointing out that “it is necessary to analyze how people voted. The neighbor got tired of the bureaucracy and it would be serious not to take note. The demands are concrete, urgent, I do not envision a Council outside of that. Discussions may exist, but the problem is serious and must be responded to.”
Interaction with the Executive
Among the debutant councilors, one of those who will probably have the most visible profile is Leandro Costa Brutten (Including Bariloche), also of Peronist affiliation and former candidate for lieutenant governor running with Silvia Horne.
Asked about the task that awaits him, he said that “first we will have to see what the Executive wants, what projects it proposes to carry out its program.” He anticipated that he will be especially vigilant “that the tenders return and direct purchases be left aside”, of which the current government made a common practice.
Costa Brutten said that he expects “a strong reduction of the political staff” and that he will promote specific audits on the Ministry of Finance, the debt, the relationship with Mi Bus and the commitments with the concessionaire companies of Catedral and Cerro Campanario.
When asked about the commissions in which he aspires to work, he said that if possible “in all of them,” although his priority is Government and Legal, Works and also the one that deals with transportation. Costa Brutten announced that she will promote Council sessions in the neighborhoods and the rehabilitation of the participatory budget.
Samantha Echenique will assume a single seat for the Pro party (in JxC) and already knows the area because years ago she worked as an advisor to former councilor Daniel González. Echenique also spoke of the importance of “build consensus” so that the Council produces as expected, but clarified that this “will depend on the imprint given by the winning party.”
He assured that the population’s low tolerance will have an impact, because “deliberative bodies talk about some issues and society talks about others. There is a rupture that must be resolved.”
Another of the councilors who will have his first experience in public office will be Facundo Villalba, from Primero Río Negro, who has a critical view of the current Council, which he sees “very unproductive”. He said that with his peers they will have to work immediately to “generate land and enable new lots”, in his opinion the exclusive priority.
“Everyone’s concern should be not to disappoint our voters,” he said. “We are going to take our proposals to listen to those of other blocks and we are willing to accompany everything that goes towards the Bariloche that we want.”
Villalba wants to work specifically on commissions that address habitat and economic development issues. He said that the Council cannot isolate itself and must focus on building “greater political quality.” He is concerned about being a councilor “who represents the people more than the bagel” and who deepens “participatory spaces with decision-making capacity, not like the neighbor’s bench, which is only declamatory.”
Keep what’s right
Del Río will have the mission of leading the Deliberative, which usually attracts many glances and also many questions from those who consider it a sterile and unproductive body. He said that structurally, the schedules, commissions and the permanent dissemination of everything that has been done, he does not plan to apply changes. He will study changes to “integrate the neighbor more”, with the option of leaving the headquarters in the Civic Center and taking sessions to the neighborhoods.
He insisted that we will have to work “project by project” and the negotiations will be “intense” because the ruling party has only three votes and needs at least six to approve simple projects and eight for those that demand a qualified majority.
He did not define which block he will have the most affinity with and plans to seek rapprochement with all of them. “From what I could hear, we all agree with the same thing, which is to improve the quality of life of the neighbors,” said the future president of the Council. “I don’t think that with this situation we are going through there are obstacles to management.”
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