Luis Quiroga, mayor of Mina Clavero, surprised everyone by calling for the UCR not to participate in the October elections. According to a letter he wrote titled "Return to Abstentionism," the proposal aims to preserve the party's identity in the current national context. He also took the opportunity to harshly criticize the provincial leadership, which he accuses of "electoral pettiness" and "backroom deals" made "behind the backs of the grassroots."
"We won't be functional to a game that doesn't represent us," he stated, as he considered it more dignified to hide in his mountain valley than to engage in political battle. "We won't validate structures emptied of content, nor will we legitimize leaderships that are based solely on speculation and convenience," he added.
These statements are intended to be a kind of revolutionary manifesto, but they reveal the pursuit of a preventive withdrawal. In light of history, what sounds like a call to party ethics could also be read as "let's not run, so we don't embarrass ourselves."
El intendente pretende que la UCR no se presente a las elecciones de octubre
Barbs at the Radical leadership and praise for mayors from the heartland
Quiroga used his statement to question those currently leading the provincial UCR and, in passing, to clean up the image of the interior. He asserted that the "party's institutional framework is degraded," but not because of collective mistakes, rather because of "those who put individual interests" before the common good. Of course, he doesn't include himself among those responsible and prefers to align himself with the good guys in the story.
In contrast, he praised the radical mayors from the interior, who, according to him, managed to connect with their communities without "flashes or empty slogans". That quiet activism —he said— allowed the party to win elections and present itself as a "transformative" option in various towns and cities. As if governing without cameras automatically guaranteed honesty, Quiroga proposed that salvation should come from the bottom up.
"Humble and persistent political practice is what keeps radicalism alive," he stated with an epic tone. Perhaps that approach also includes the idea of stepping down from the competition when an adverse result is anticipated. A reverse epic that prefers the stillness of abstention over the thrill of facing the popular will.
Quiroga aprovechó su pronunciamiento para cuestionar a quienes hoy conducen la UCR provincial
When fear of Milei disguises itself as Alfonsinist mystique
Quiroga suggested that Milei's Argentina is so unrepresentative that it's not even worth fighting at the polls. "Returning to abstentionism is also returning to our roots", he declared, invoking the spirits of Alem, Yrigoyen, and Illia to justify his withdrawal.
He stated that his rejection of the party's current leadership is also a criticism of the uncritical following of national alliances. According to him, radicalism must stand up to the "vacancy of ideas" that currently runs through it, although the solution, instead of building an alternative, is not to compete. A tactic that would embarrass even the most inactive neighborhood committee.
Meanwhile, while Milei wields a chainsaw with popular support and agenda, Quiroga proposes abstaining "as a form of active resistance". If the goal is not to legitimize what is already legitimate by vote, the result is as paradoxical as it is predictable: to disappear from public discussion by one's own decision. A gesture that, far from seeming brave, reeks of surrender before the fight.
