Santiago Fioriti
07/18/2020 - 23:56
- Clarín.com
- Politics
Alberto Fernández and Cristina Kirchner talked about the disagreements that once again stirred the waters of the ruling coalition this week, perhaps the one with the greatest tension in the power game that has marked the rhythm of management since December 10. What did they say to each other? Only they know exactly.The President takes care that the content of the talks with his vice never transcend or that they transcend nuanced and without drama. An example could suffice to explain what type of relationship they have. Witnesses to the most intimate movements of the Prime Minister say that, if in the middle of a meeting, he receives a call from Angela Merkel or Emmanuel Macron -the examples are literal-, he listens and speaks in front of whoever it is as if nothing happened; If Cristina calls, Alberto departs to talk to her alone.
The friendly fire that the presidential figure received in the last seven days did not alter his mood in public. The letters seem drawn. The main figures of the Cabinet, even the most Albertist, admit that they will have to live with the bucklers during the remaining three and a half years of administration. A torture that many warned - and, from what one begins to see, the least traumatic - due to the transmission of votes made by the former president. The great fear is that the sparks will eventually lead to an institutional crisis . Alberto knows this and seeks to manage that fire. If he is exalted, he does it inside doors. It really does: the chats between them, if they could see each other, would be a sample.
Most of the time the head of state seems to yield. In the last seven days he had three gestures towards hard Christianity. First : the call and the letter to try to contain Hebe de Bonafini (could it be true that the head of the Mothers apologized for saying that the country is going downhill?), Despite the fact that her vision of the post-pandemic was harsher than that of any opponent. Second : her abrupt turn on the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding with Iran (for which Cristina is being prosecuted and whom he had criticized like few others on this issue). Third: the call to the journalist Víctor Hugo Morales to explain on the air that Argentina did not change its position on Venezuela; that is, that the country will continue to condemn, but only partially, Nicolás Maduro's enormous violations of human rights.
The story also succumbs when the day to day is contaminated by internal crossings. Unity in diversity, the proclaimed official slogan to justify alliances that go from the Communist Party to the Peronist right that governs several provinces, is in crisis . That crisis prompted Defense Minister Agustín Rossi, of unquestionable loyalty to Cristina, to write a tweet to urge the leadership to "bank" the President. Only seven months passed after the change of government. It didn't seem like the most far-sighted message to scare away ghosts.
There were also headaches in the team of intellectual advisers. This group is supposed to have been composed, among other reasons, to generate ideas and to collaborate with the presidential speech. To spice up a new story, some argue. It is made up of the sociologist Dora Barrancos, the philosopher Ricardo Forster, the anthropologist Alejandro Grimson, the political scientist Cecilia Nicolini and the Buenos Aires deputy Leandro Santoro, the five supervised by the chief adviser, Juan Manuel Olmos, and by his deputy chief, Julián Leunda . This chronicler spoke to four of them in the past few days.
Most acknowledge the tension, although they emphasize that there is " premeditated media spectacularity" , according to the intellectuals, to condition the government's course. For several of them, Cristina contributes to the debate and it is not she who does harm but those who believe that a tweet of her enables the most ideological to intervene on the public scene without paying attention to the severity of the crisis. They separate that leadership from Hebe, whom they consider untouchable: "A moral voice with an earned right that the rest of the mortals do not have," according to one of the members of the advisory council.
Horacio González, the former director of the National Library in the terms of the Kirchner couple, thinks the same, and another of the voices heard by those who encouraged Open Letter at the time. González acknowledges that in the leadership of the country "an unprecedented situation in Argentine history" is taking place. He argues it like this: "Alberto is a complete and indisputable president, but he has a vice-president who plays several roles and who had a gift before the elections. That gift, that talisman that she decided to give Fernández to win made him assume that the President It was going to be diminished. Today Cristina occupies a subordinate position, but she was the one who created the situation. This is the complexity. Although, on the other hand, where has it been seen that there can be no discussions in a government? such a point that many say 'she is my boss'. Alberto's charisma is cautious, he has very thoughtful anger, he pretends not to notice. Cristina's charisma is the unexpected and direct action. "
Harassed by a sector of his own government and in the same week in which he apologized for the initiative to expropriate Vicentin, Alberto extended his arms to the opposition. With the help of Sergio Massa, who always tries to pull Fernández towards the center ("without a doubt in Venezuela there is a dictatorship," the Tigrense differentiated himself), he managed to sit down virtually with several of the main senators and deputies, whom He considers it key for the package of laws that he is about to send to Congress and for other initiatives that he is considering.
The call generated a significant noise in Together for Change. First, the group said it refused to attend because "the conditions were not in place" and then asked for preferential treatment. Alberto granted it to him and opened a crack in the alliance that integrates the PRO, the UCR and the Civic Coalition. Elisa Carrió, aware of the move, urged her legislators to leave the chair empty. An inescapable message for those who until recently celebrated their resignation from banking.
Carrió has not left her room for 120 days, fearful that the coronavirus will aggravate her health without return. She doesn't even go for a walk. Observe the green landscape from a large window in her new house in Exaltación de la Cruz. Watch documentaries about the Jewish people and analyze the origin of the last names. But she does not withdraw from politics. "The opposition cannot go to the lion's mouth. Kirchnerism has always been the same and wants to destroy those who oppose us. There are no differences between Alberto and Cristina. They want to wear us , " he explained privately.
Several leading leaders of Together for Change called her to see why the Coalition had slammed the door. She replied that Kirchnerism performs these maneuvers when she feels weak and reminded them of an antecedent: 2009.
That year, after the victory that, in partnership with Mauricio Macri and Felipe Solá, Francisco de Narváez obtained against Néstor Kirchner, the Government summoned the anti-K forces. They were all but the Civic Coalition. Kirchnerism then obtained guarantees to advance on two projects that months later would be laws: the Media Law and political reform. Carrió believes that history, like a great tragedy or a miserable farce, could be repeated.