Rodríguez Larreta pitches presidential bid in final speech to City legislature as mayor

I nhis “last first day” heading the nation’s capital, Buenos Aires City Mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta inaugurated the opening of ordinary sessions of the City Legislature on Wednesday by plugging his administration as an example of how “we can advance in the same direction nationwide” – an implicit nod to his presidential ambitions.

Expressing “profound satisfaction over the major transformations,” the PRO leader highlighted the educational sphere among these, listing the inclusion of English in public schools, the creation of the University of the City and the reform of the statute governing teachers among other initiatives, insisting that they could all be projected across the country.

Describing the situation of education in Argentina as “alarming,” Rodríguez Larreta continued: “We have to go deeper and face up to the most ambitious educational revolution in history. We need a modern education, a focus on future skills, the best infrastructure, trained teachers and bridges to the working world.”

Looking national rather than municipal, the two-term mayor went on to assure that Argentina could “create millions of jobs but for that it needs a state which promotes private activity, … to reduce the deadweight of the state over the private sector … and fight inflation to the finish.”

Turning to the area of security (where he also referred to crime at a national level while presenting the City as an example of what could be done), Rodríguez Larreta ratified that he would “continue fighting against the arbitrary and unconsulted reduction of funds for security … and insisting on the need to use taser pistols in the City.”

The City mayor further affirmed that the social p la ns“ar en otworking asan exit from poverty,” recommending the City model of a cut-off period and work in return instead.

Towards the end of his speech, he resumed his presiden-campaign tial theme against the grieta chasm, attributing Argentina’s failures to “building out of division, not unity” for decades, holding responsible “the politicians who campaign at the price of confronting Argentines against Argentines.”

“We dared to transform the City and now we will dare to transform the country,” he said, spelling out his presidential ambitions clearly. Finally, Rodríguez Larreta thanked his predecessor Mauricio Macri for recruiting him into his team: “Thank you, Mauricio, with whom we started these transformations in 2007 which we could continue from 2015 through to today.”