Throughout its administration, PRO pushed for repeated tax increases and high public spending
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In recent years, the PRO, led by figures like Mauricio Macri, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, and now Jorge Macri, has consolidated its hegemony in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (CABA), governing uninterruptedly since 2007, totaling 18 years of management.
However, its management reveals a very notable contradiction between its practices and the discourse it adopts during electoral campaigns. While the party now presents itself as a defender of tax reduction and public spending, its trajectory shows a pattern of strong tax increases and budget management that, in many cases, replied to political interests rather than a vision of fiscal efficiency.
Throughout its management, the PRO has pushed for repeated increases in local taxes such as ABL (Lighting, Sweeping, and Cleaning) and vehicle registration fees, which directly impacted the pockets of Buenos Aires residents. For example, annual ABL adjustments have far exceeded inflation in several periods, justified by the need to "finance works and services."
Mauricio Macri, expresidente de Argentina.
However, public spending in CABA is not efficient, with significant allocations to official advertising, high-profile events, and infrastructure projects that, although flashy, do not always respond to people's priorities.
Additionally, the growth of the public employee workforce and the creation of agencies with overlapping functions have contributed to a sustained increase in spending, contradicting the austerity narrative that the PRO now tries to project.
The arrival of Milei and the new discourse of the PRO
With the arrival of the electoral campaign, the PRO changed its discourse toward the promise of lowering taxes, appealing to an electorate tired of fiscal pressure. This strategy is clearly inspired by the rise of President Javier Milei, whose national management has implemented a deep fiscal adjustment, reducing public spending and promoting a tax reduction as part of his libertarian agenda.
Jorge Macri, jefe de Gobierno porteño.
However, the PRO's discursive shift is clearly opportunistic, as the party not only did not apply these policies in its nearly two decades of government in CABA, but now seeks to politically capitalize on Milei's narrative without a track record to support it.
The contradiction of the PRO highlights an electoral strategy that prioritizes political gain over coherence. Meanwhile, as Milei advances with concrete measures at the national level, Buenos Aires residents see how the PRO's promises are simply an attempt to ride the wave of a discourse that doesn't belong to them.
