Republican Proposal
Republican Proposal is a center-right political party in Argentina. It is usually referred to by its abbreviation, PRO. PRO was formed as an electoral alliance in 2005, but was transformed into a national party in 2010. It is the major component of the Cambiemos coalition, and its founder and leader, Mauricio Macri, is the former President of Argentina.
PRO has governed the City of Buenos Aires since 2007 and formed Cambiemos with the Radical Civic Union and the Civic Coalition ARI with which they won the 2015 general election.
History
PRO began as an alliance between Commitment to Change of Mauricio Macri, and Recreate for Growth of Ricardo López Murphy created in 2005.At the 2005 legislative elections the alliance won 9 of the 127 deputies up for election.
Other provincial center-right parties united within PRO. Macri and López Murphy spoke with Governor Jorge Sobisch, leader of the Neuquino People's Movement, but did not reach an alliance.
In the 2007 Argentine general election, PRO did not officially back a candidate but gave tacit support to the bid of López Murphy, who stood as the Recrear candidate. López Murphy did poorly, gaining just 1.45% of the vote. PRO and its allies stood in the congressional elections and won 2 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, quedando 6 seats overall.
In the June 2007 elections in the City of Buenos Aires, PRO decisively won the election, with Macri becoming Head of Government and the alliance taking 15 of the 30 seats in the city legislature. In addition to CpC and Recrear, the alliance included the Democratic Progressive Party, the Democratic Party, the Federal Party, the Movement for Integration and Development, the Popular Union and other neighborhood parties. Mauricio Macri formed an electoral alliance called Union-PRO with Francisco de Narváez, who was the candidate for Governor of Buenos Aires. He obtained third place with 15% of the vote.
For the 2009 legislative elections, De Narváez and Felipe Solá were the main candidates for national deputies for the Buenos Aires Province and defeated Nestor Kirchner.
In August 2009, Recreate for Growth gave up its formal independence and was completely absorbed by Republican Proposal.
On 3 June 2010, the alliance became recognized as a national political party.
In the legislative elections of June 28, 2009, the PRO was presented with its own list with Gabriela Michetti in the City of Buenos Aires and in alliance with the Federal Peronism in the province of Buenos Aires. Unión PRO won 19.21% of the votes and third place nationally.
In July 2011, PRO, in alliance with the Democratic Party and the Democratic Progressive Party, obtained a 46.1% vote in the City of Buenos Aires. In the second round on July 31, he reached the victory and re-election of Macri as Head of Government with 64.3% of the votes. That same year, Jorge Macri was elected first mayor of the conurbano through PRO in the October elections with 38.4% in Vicente López. In the province of Santa Fe, Unión PRO Federal, headed by Miguel del Sel obtained 35.2% of the votes, but Bonfatti obtained the governorship with 38.7%.
For the 2013 legislative elections, PRO achieved an alliance with Union for All, a new classical liberal party led by Patricia Bullrich. It obtained legislative seats in the Córdoba Province, Entre Rios Province, La Pampa Province, Salta Province, San Juan Province, Santa Fe Province and in the City of Buenos Aires. PRO obtained 3 senators and 18 deputies.
In June 2015, the Republican Proposal, Radical Civic Union and the ARI Civic Coalition formed Cambiemos, a big tent political coalition that proposes a change before the twelve years of government center-left kirchnerists. Subsequently joined the FE Party, Union for Freedom, the Popular Conservative Party and the Progressive Democratic Party.
These three parties nominated Mauricio Macri, Ernesto Sanz and Elisa Carrió as their representatives in the August 2015 primary elections, which were held to choose which candidate would run for the 2015 presidential election on October 25. On August 9, 2015, Mauricio Macri was elected with 80.75% of the votes as the candidate who would represent Cambiemos in the presidential election.
On October 25, he won second place with 34.15% and managed to enter the ballotage. On November 22, he was elected President of Argentina with 51.34% of the votes after winning in the second round the Kirchnerist Daniel Scioli
Gabriela Michetti, in their Inauguration Ceremony in Argentine Parliament, on 10 December 2015.
Horacio Rodríguez Larreta was elected Chief of Government of the City of Buenos Aires under another district coalition: Unión-PRO. María Eugenia Vidal defeated Aníbal Fernández and became Governor of the Buenos Aires Province, putting an end to 28 years of Peronist control.
Republican Proposal joined the International Democrat Union on 17 January 2017.
In the legislative elections of 2017, Esteban Bullrich, member of Republican Proposal, obtained the first place and Cambiemos defeated the Citizen's Unity of the former Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.
In March 2018, Union for Freedom, member of the Liberal International, agreed to its dissolution and integration into the PRO. This merger was approved by the PRO National Council and Patricia Bullrich joined the party.
In June 2019, an extension of the Cambiemos alliance was made: it is renamed Juntos por el Cambio, by adding to Federal Peronism led by Miguel Ángel Pichetto, who would share the presidential formula of space together with Mauricio Macri. In the 2019 presidential elections, JxC was in second place, with 40% of the votes, behind Fernández, who won first round with 48% of the votes.
In the province of Buenos Aires, Governor María Eugenia Vidal sought re-election but was defeated by the candidate of the Frente de Todos, Axel Kicillof, who won 52% of the votes against 38% obtained by Together for Change. In the City of Buenos Aires, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta joins the Radical Civil Union and the Socialist Party to the district alliance and is reelected as Chief of Government with 56% of the votes in the first round.
Political position
The party claims to revive the "spirit" of Arturo Frondizi, who was Argentine president of the Radical Civic Union between 1958 and 1962, on the website.In general, PRO can be classified as moderate conservatism with elements of economic liberalism.
PRO's fundamental ties come from other center-right parties. It sought alliances with parties like the Democratic Party.
PRO is affiliated with the International Democratic Union, which groups conservative parties from different countries and has links with international networks of think tanks such as the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.
Mauricio Macri defined his own strength as "pro-market".
Despite the majority of PRO members, they refuse to accept that their party be classified as "right-wing" for various reasons. In Argentina, only 20% of citizens recognize themselves as right-wing and PRO, like other modern parties, to seek where there is a greater amount of potential votes, hoping to add voters to the center without losing the support of those on the right-wing. A rejection to be placed in the field of the right-wing prevails, which in Argentina is strongly associated with authoritarianism.
Economic position
PRO supports lower taxes, deregulation, free trade, and Macri has expressed opposition to the nationalization of the country's airline and oil companies.During Macri's presidency, he liberalized foreign exchange and exports and imports controls, cut some taxes and energy subsidies.
Social position
Even though the majority of national deputies of PRO voted against same-sex marriage, Mauricio Macri has supported LGBT rights to the point of confronting with some of his allies.During Macri's presidency, when the PRO leader declared himself pro-life, most party members voted against legalizing abortion.
Young PRO
Jóvenes PRO is the young wing within this political party with an ideology based on economic liberalism and social liberalism, with a strong defense of liberal democracy.They are full members of the International Youth Democrat Union, a global association of conservative and center-right youth organizations since December 2013.
For many years, the youth wing was led by Marcos Peña, one of the biggest referents of the PRO party.
Pensar Foundation
Fundación Pensar is a think tank that develops electoral strategies and public policies for the party.In 2010 he was with Francisco Cabrera as president. The objective of the foundation was to design public policies and coordinate technical teams for a future national government of Mauricio Macri.