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Alberto Fernández called Pope Francis to thank him for his debt management

2020-08-08T17:48:57.292Z


The Supreme Pontiff, who paved the way for Martín Guzmán to the Ministry of Economy, also made key movements with the head of the IMF.


Sergio Rubin

08/08/2020 - 12:54

  • Clarín.com
  • Politics

It is difficult to measure how much Pope Francis influenced the government to reach an agreement with the bondholders. Connoisseurs of Wall Street believe that little and nothing because there the vile metal is the only thing that counts. However, after the laborious understanding achieved this week, President Alberto Fernández  called Jorge Bergoglio hours later to thank him for his help so that the negotiation had a happy ending.

Sources from the Casa Rosada confirmed the call to Clarín , eager for the gesture to transcend. It is not a secret that Fernández wants to cultivate a close relationship with the pontiff , unlike Mauricio Macri who as president preferred distance with the head of the Catholic Church, following advice from his powerful chief of staff, Marcos Peña, and his once influential star advisor, Jaime Durán Barba.

Last February, Pope Francis participated in the economic seminar "New forms of Solidarity" at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Photo: Victor Sokolowicz

In truth, the Pope's contribution seems to have gone beyond negotiation. It does little more than a year received Martin Guzman and his mentor, Nobel Prize in Economics Joseph Stiglitz , who wanted to make a contribution to the teaching of an economy "with a human face". They came from the hand of the Pontifical Scholas Occurrentes Foundation, led by two Argentines: José María del Corral and Enrique Palmeyro.

There is no shortage of observers who consider that that meeting paved the way for Guzmán to arrive at the Ministry of Economy and that Stiglitz would bring together world figures from the economic sector to support Argentina's position in the renegotiation. Beyond its effectiveness, there were a couple of statements from these figures at the beginning and at the most arduous moment of the talks.

The next milestone was more concrete. With Guzmán already in the Palacio de Hacienda, the Vatican Academy of Social Sciences organized at the beginning of February a seminar on a more solidary economy that, among other personalities who attended, enabled the head of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva , and the minister to coincide of Economy. They even dined almost alone in Rome.

Kristalina - a fervent Catholic, an admirer of Francisco - encouraged the Fund to encourage a successful negotiation between Argentina and the bondholders, beyond the concrete influence between the creditors. Now, that a harsh renegotiation of the country with that financial organization is anticipated for what it lent it, the head of the IMF can be of great help, although without departing from the rules that that institution has.

In addition, there would have been other much more discreet efforts on the part of the Pope with relevant leaders on the world board in favor of Argentina. For example, it is said that with Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany, the European country with the greatest weight in the IMF. Francisco and Merkel maintain a fluid relationship, to the point that she visited him almost a dozen times in the more than seven years of his pontificate.

It is true that the Pope today does not have a good arrival at the government of the main nation regarding the debt problems of Argentina: the United States. Unlike the time when Barak Obama was in the White House and the bond was very close, with Donald Trump the relationship is glacial. And it matches the president's harmony with the most conservative Catholic sectors in his country.

But everything can change if the Democratic candidate Joe Biden wins the November elections. Today the polls are smiling at him. Biden would be the second Catholic president in the history of the United States after John Kennedy. There are those who say that at the time he viewed Bergoglio's candidacy for the papacy with good eyes. Beyond his religious affiliation, he is very in tune with the ideas of the Pope.

Perhaps for all this Fernández hastened to thank the Pope. But having him close may also be useful if your bond with Cristina is strained. She did not end well with Francisco, especially after he chose Carlos Zannini as his vice-presidential candidate and Aníbal Fernández for the governorship of Buenos Aires. Now the president is Alberto. It is not a minor institutional data.

NE

Source: clarin

All news articles on 2020-08-08

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