Without direct allusions to his provincial candidacy, the mayor of Córdoba, Martín Llaryora, gave his last speech as head of the capital’s Executive this Thursday night when he opened the regular session of the Deliberative Council in an act that took place in the brand new Center Operation of CPC Colón.
The municipal chief focused his speech on highlighting what he considered achievements of a management that he described as “remedial.” He did it to contrast it with that of his predecessors in office. In an undisguised political key -a tone that ran through the entire long speech-, he highlighted the axes of actions promoted in the city that sought, he said, “to lay the foundations” to turn Córdoba into one of “the best cities in Latin America”.
Facing former mayor Luis Juez and Rodrigo de Loredo, the opponents present at the event who have not yet defined which candidacies they will embody in the next elections, Llaryora said that, until he came to power, the city was governed from “negligence” and that he should have endure “abandonment for 15 years”. In this context, the mayor and candidate for governor only recognized -and in various parts of his message- the former radical Rubén Américo Martí, a custom since he assumed power in December 2019.
Llaryora assured that “it will be the last time that a mayor must use an environment that is not that of the city’s Legislative Power,” since the works of the new Deliberative Council “advance at a good pace.”
“We resumed the path traced by that great mayor that was Rubén Américo Martí and who was later abandoned for decades. This idea is none other than to bring the municipality closer to the people through a strong decentralization process. Each Operational Center means that the municipality reaches the neighborhood, reaches the people, and the solutions are closer”, said Llaryora. She asked for a round of applause for Martí and received an ovation.
Llaryora’s second reference was to neighborhoodism: he valued neighborhood leaders and stressed that more than 300 neighborhood centers elected their authorities in neighborhood elections where more than 68,000 Cordovans participated.
“It is one thing to govern for the neighbors and another very different is to govern with the neighbors. When we took over the government of the city, with Daniel Passerini we set out to govern with the neighbors”, said Llaryora, in the first mention of the current vice mayor and candidate for succession in the 6 de Julio Palace. He announced the elevation to 800 million pesos of the item for works carried out by neighborhood centers.
In order not to make a long list of works and actions, Llaryora presented a six-minute video that summarizes this data, and said that the exhaustive detail will go into the presentation of the goal plan that the Council will receive.
After the images, which ended with a long applause from officials and leaders of Hacemos por Córdoba present -among them Alejandra Vigo and Natalia de la Sota-, the mayor continued to mention the anniversary of the founding of the city of Córdoba. “All this is what we achieved together… This is how we are entering the 450th anniversary of the founding of the city,” he said, referring to the video.
Llaryora’s speech: continuity and Schiaretti
“From the first day we took office with Daniel and this great team that accompanies us, we did nothing more than work day and night so that the residents of this Córdoba can live better,” he said.
“We did it with our beloved governor Juan Schiaretti, with whom together, between the two teams -the provincial and the municipal- we agreed so that the recovery of the city would be faster; our neighbors couldn’t keep waiting,” he continued.
“In this way,” he asserted, “it was demonstrated that, when the governor and the mayor pull in the same direction, the answers arrive and progress becomes daily.”
Subsequently, the mayor spoke about education and the beginning of the school year in the municipal schools of Córdoba.
“We have made a historic investment in education, perhaps the largest since the construction of the municipal schools themselves. That is important. But more importantly, we made progress in an educational reform that involved all sectors and that allowed us to apply the Piensa program to the entire municipal educational system”, he pointed out. Then, he revealed that, with the intention of “continuing to innovate”, they are going to create the first municipal center for innovation and educational technology.
“Córdoba is on its feet”
Finally, the mayor spoke directly to the neighbors: “Know that I have put everything. Know that I will continue to put everything, everything that needs to be put so that Córdoba continues on the path of progress ”. He recalled the electoral characteristic of the current year, but assured that this “does not change at all” the “intensity of work.” “I fulfilled the commitment I made when they voted me mayor, which was to put Córdoba on its feet, and today Córdoba is on its feet,” Llaryora said, raising her voice. Immediately afterwards, and shouting, he assured that the city “marches and walks” and “will never go back.”
“Long live Córdoba, damn it!”, he launched to conclude before the applause of those present and in the midst of the fervor after an extensive speech that marked the end of a stage and that Llaryora will try to transform into the bridge that connects him with the aspiration to become governor of the province.