Federico Mayol
05/09/2021 19:04
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 05/09/2021 19:04
"
Come with me, Martín
," Alberto Fernández told him.
The President was hurrying to get into the latest model Mercedes Benz that was waiting for him at the door of the hotel that houses the official delegation, and which would take him to the Belem Palace, the historic residence of the Portuguese president, declared a national monument in 2007.
Martín Guzmán
, who left before embarking on Saturday night at the Ezeiza airport for his worst week as a minister, got into the Mercedes with Fernández, at the edge of 5 in the afternoon local time, and they arrived together at the first Official activity of the five-day tour that has Lisbon as its first stop and that includes, until Friday, Madrid, Paris and Rome.
The presidential gesture of raising Guzmán to his first official transfer
-Marcelo
Rebelo de Sousa was
waiting
for them
in the Belem residence- through the streets of a friendly and spring-like Lisbon, which for a couple of months has been going through a total lack of refinement due to COVID, it places the Minister of Economy in the forefront of a tour focused especially on the renegotiation of debt with the Monetary Fund first, and then with the Paris Club.
The leading role of this European Guzmán seeks to counteract the wear
suffered by the minister in the last week due to the course of economic policy, whose finishing touch was the decision, until now failed, to resign from the undersecretary of Energy, a third-rate official line that responds directly to La Cámpora, famous these days.
In the presidential entourage,
the
Guzmán-Basualdo
affair is
annoying
.
It is, perhaps, one of the least pleasant subjects in domestic politics.
Not only because of the officials themselves: if not because of the eternal leadership discussion within the coalition.
"
It is a finished issue
. It was much louder in the media than what actually happened. With Martín there is an intense work schedule," they excused themselves in this city from the presidential environment.
Guzmán, they trust the delegation, every time they mention Basualdo, his face changes.
Alberto Fernández signed the guestbook before the meeting with the President of Portugal Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
The debate in Buenos Aires about the increase in electricity rates in the city and Greater Buenos Aires
-the heart of the K vote-, which the minister intends to settle with another increase beyond the 9% made official two Fridays ago through segmentation is still latent.
But
Europe will not be the place to put it up for consideration
.
The minister, who by the summer ended up losing the sympathy that Cristina Kirchner offered him at first with the support for the renegotiation of the debt with private bondholders issued under foreign legislation,
arrived in Lisbon focused exclusively on negotiations with the Fund Monetary.
In spite of the fact that the government's subsidy policy, and its consequences on the State's accounts, it is tied to the conversations with the multilateral credit organization.
For the official, the discussion is strictly economic.
And not politics.
That is why he was accused even by his own allies for the "
malpractice
" with which he tried to run the undersecretary linked to the kidney of Kirchnerism.
President Alberto Fernández with his father from Portugal Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
Presidency photo.
This Monday, Guzmán, who landed in Lisbon with a handful of collaborators who follow him in the sun and shade, will have his only meeting in the Portuguese capital outside the presidential agenda at mid-morning local time.
This is the meeting that he will hold with
João Leão
, the government's finance minister, an important official from whom the Argentine minister intends to obtain support in the renegotiation with the Fund.
It is Guzmán's main role this week.
Leão was the only Minister of Finance with whom he had not met during his last tour, before his internal quarrel with Basualdo broke out, and which took him through Germany, Spain, France and Italy.
"
Now we want to finish harvesting that work, and obtain the support of the presidents,
" they assure from the delegation.
At the end of this edition, the minister,
who Fernández ratified without nuances for the role he gave him on this trip, had
finished defining the rest of his agenda in Madrid, Paris and Rome, the three destinations of the Aerolineas Argentinas charter rented by the Presidency.
Other activities could be added to the requisition of entrepreneurs in France.
The closing, in Rome, will have the minister who last week was in the sights of the Instituto Patria face to face with Kristalina Georgieva, the director of the Monetary Fund.
At a Vatican activity
under the umbrella of Pope Francis.
Lisbon, special envoy
