Republican Proposal () is a to centre-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 Juntos por el Cambio coalition, and its leader is former Argentine president Mauricio Macri.
PRO has governed the 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.
Macri aligned the country with gradualist neoliberalism and re-opened Argentina to international markets by lifting currency controls, restructuring sovereign debt, and pressing free-market solutions.
History
Opposition
PRO began as an alliance between Commitment to Change (CPC) of Mauricio Macri, and Recreate for Growth (Recrear) of Ricardo López Murphy created in 2005.
At the 2005 legislative elections, the alliance won nine 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 two swats in the Chamber of Deputies, and six 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.The political space Values for my Country became a monobloc in congress, detaching itself from the Republican Proposal
On 3 June 2010, the alliance became recognized as a national political party.
In the legislative elections of 28 June 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 31 July, he reached the victory and re-election of Macri as Chief 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 Santa Fe Province, 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 (later called Union for Freedom), 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.
Coalition
In June 2015, the Republican Proposal (PRO), 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 Democratic Progressive 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 25 October. On 9 August 2015, Mauricio Macri was elected with 80.75% of the votes as the candidate who would represent Cambiemos in the presidential election.