Guido Carelli Lynch
02/08/2020 - 22:23
- Clarín.com
- Politics
The same day Alberto Fernández visited the Pope, the prime minister and the president of Italy, Giuseppe Conte and Sergio Mattarella ; in the initial kick of his European tour Europe, the continent creaked. After a long wait, Brexit was consumed and Britain gave its announced slam. At the Brandenburg gate, a few blocks from the German Chancellery, where three days later the President would have dinner with Angela Merkel, a crowd gathered to sing the hymn of joy, wave the flags of the European Union and mourn the end of a stage.
Just six days later, the President returned to Argentina with the support of Francisco , the Italians, Merkel, the Spanish Pedro Sánchez and the Frenchman Emmanuel Macron to negotiate for the debt with the IMF. In the middle, the head of the credit agency, Kristalina Georgieva , met with the Minister of Economy Martín Guzmán and listened carefully to the predictable look of the Pope on the debt.
However, despite the undoubted success of the tour in political terms; the President knows that only with Europe it is not enough to tip the balance in his favor in the IMF board. Even the sympathy of the Fund's executive director is not enough.
Donald Trump , before anyone else, has the key. He also had it 18 months ago when he decided that the IMF would give the administration of Mauricio Macri the largest loan in the 76-year history of the agency. Not only does it have 16.5 percent of the votes (more than one point than the EU). It also has veto power and, as the President himself often repeats, it is "the most powerful country in the world", with all that that means. The votes of Great Britain (4 percent of the total), also count and, for now, are a mystery.
Some members of the official delegation that accompanied the President in Europe suggest that the renewed pressure of the Government by the Falklands may further remove London from Argentina in the Fund (and in any area).
However, Fernández picked up an impression during the tour that excites him, as they trust very close to the president. Brexit , which damaged Europe, can become an opportunity for Latin America and, above all, for Argentina.
The President believes, as some of the European leaders told him, that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Trump will strengthen their bond . Instead, he warns that Europe will seek to balance the balance by approaching Canada and Latin America and that China and Russia will attend - as always - their own game.
In the Government they get excited about this equation and the vision that Macron shared with the President: to make Argentina a regional power such as France in Europe.
Despite the crisis, Fernández is convinced that Argentina remains one of the most stable and reliable countries in the region and that it can become the gateway to European investment and politics in Latin America . Either to solve the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela or to bring wills between leaders of both continents. To Merkel, for example, he proposed to be the bridge with the Mexican Andrés Manuel López Obrador . The distrust that Jair Bolsonaro arouses on the other side of the Atlantic enhances the vision of the President. Fernandez expressed the same idea bluntly to Macron, in front of the whole world, in his joint statement to the press at the Elysium. "Argentina can be the gateway of France in the region," he said.
His friend, the president of the Spanish Government Pedro Sánchez , conveyed to him the anger that European leaders feel with Johnson, the Argentine president's intimates say. The leader of the PSOE is one of the most enthusiastic advocates of the idea that the European Union must reward those who stay and punish those who leave the block.
Argentina could benefit commercially beyond the comings and goings by the EU-Mercosur agreement ; but also in other sensitive topics of interest to the country. As Clarín said, Foreign Minister Felipe Solá asked his French counterpart to recognize as a territory in dispute and collaborate with pressure on Britain in more relevant areas of the United Nations than the decolonization committee, where they affirm the debate was very reduced.
In each of the cities he visited, the President defined himself as "Europeanist." His collaborators say that he does not understand why Argentina is still waiting for the United States, “a girl we always invite out and never says yes”, unlike the European Union that concentrates the main external investors in Argentina.
In any case, the President does not want to confront the White House. His favoritism for Europe is not to the detriment of Washington; He knows it doesn't suit him. And, although he promotes a different solution for Venezuela, he agreed to the request of the State Department and spoke with Nicolás Maduro to free a detained US citizen. Hugo Chavez's successor agreed and, in addition, released four other detainees.
Trump already winked at the President when he received the brand new ambassador Jorge Argüello . "Tell President Fernandez that you can count on this president," said the Republican tycoon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had already pleaded before him at the behest of Fernandez, official sources confirmed in Paris.
The President knows that Argentina's debt is just one chapter of the huge and tense agenda between the United States and Europe. However, he trusts that these major discussions (NATO and trade tariffs, to name just two) will not necessarily interfere in the Argentine negotiation. “They (for the United States) know that they have a huge responsibility for what happened and they don't want anyone - except Europe - to remind them of them,” said the President's closest collaborators.
The perspective of Merkel's withdrawal from politics in 2021 and the low popularity of Macron (a constant since the beginning of his government) open questions about the continuity of the support of the two main countries of the European Union to Argentina and the possible society between the blocks. Perhaps it is another reason to move forward with a quick agreement with the Fund. Fernandez is not worried. "What could I do? Wait? ”, They heard him say in Jerusalem before embarking on his first international tour.
