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Cristina, retirement and debt, the cocktail with which Alberto Fernández juggles

2020-02-23T10:39:51.867Z


The President wants to avoid inmates at a delicate time. The surveys that arrived at the Casa Rosada and the disagreements by rates.


Santiago Fioriti

02/22/2020 - 22:01

  • Clarín.com
  • Politics

In recent weeks, three pollsters close to the Casa Rosada sent their public opinion works to the President. All, even the most recent, record that Alberto Fernández maintains the expectation with which he began his term . The honeymoon that new governments usually have with their societies in the first months has not been altered, although scholars of modern social humor warn that these periods - not only in Argentina - are increasingly demanding and volatile . In a nutshell: the majority still believe today that in a year their economic situation will be better. It's not little. It is not too much either.

One of those consultants addicted to the polls who sent their numbers to Balcarce 50 stayed chatting days ago with a frontline official about the risks that could imply that the results of the management did not start to be seen or that the middle class took note of that the campaign promise to “put money in people's pocket” would not be easily fulfilled or that negotiations with the IMF and bondholders would be thwarted. The official, who has been taking surveys since when he worked for Nestor Kirchner, made a sudden stop in the conversation, and said: "Do you know what happens? This Government is lacking to build an epic."

The consultant came from making a focus group in Córdoba, the most adverse province for Kirchnerism and the one most similar to Mauricio Macri. He responded by citing those elements that he had just processed: “ The epic that people expect from Alberto is to be imposed on Cristina. Even in places where Kirchnerism is doing badly, everyone prefers to win him and lose her. ”

For some reason that perhaps we should not only look at encyclopedias of political art, the president needs every week to ratify his bond with his partner. It does so before the minimum journalistic transcendence that there is noise on the line. Last week he said his words against the International Monetary Fund were "very accurate". In this one he went further: "I have the peace of mind of having Cristina on my side." It is an unprecedented fact that a head of state makes these gestures towards his vice.

Witnesses of his talk on the phone ensure that the relationship is at a very good time and that they analyze the situation together and permanently, although they reveal that the most thorny issues speak them face to face or ultimately on Telegram. Those who love both encouraged the celebration of Cristina's 67th birthday and distributed a video in which they are seen in full jarana. They say that Cristina did not want to make any celebration and that they convinced her when she arrived from Cuba. In the end she made the guest list and asked to share the main table with Alberto and his partner, Fabiola Yáñez.

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That was the second social meeting in 72 hours. There had been another that was not discussed and there were no photos. Last Sunday Max Kirchner turned 43. He celebrated it at Mercedes. Cristina went with her granddaughter Helena. There were the dome of La Cámpora and some close friends of the deputy. Some were surprised to see Alberto arrive, at the hand of the first lady.

"There are rabid dogs on both sides, people who want to divide them, we can't deny that, but Alberto-Cristina-Máximo triangulation is perfect," they say near Máximo. With Axel Kicillof, who was also invited to the celebration (not Sergio Massa), it is different. The communication between the governor and the deputy has interferences from time to time. Just as Alberto takes care to preserve the bond with mother and son, Axel chooses to speak directly with the vice president.

The night before Máximo's birthday, the President had dinner at Olivos's residence with his group of friends. They were, among others, Alberto Iribarne, Jorge Argüello, Julio Vitobello, Guillermo Olivieri and Eduardo Valdés. Before that circle, Alberto advanced several things that later happened . His decision, for example, that the regime of privilege retirement of judges and judicial officers be promoted without change. He raised it in a very effusive way, maybe he even missed some insult .

He also raised that day in Olivos that the high level of credit card refinancing rates could not be tolerated. " Miguel turned white, " said one of the attendees. Miguel is Miguel Ángel Pesce, the president of the Central Bank, the first to intuit that Fernández was going to make his request public, as indeed happened.

Renegotiation of the debt, however, remains at the top of the agenda. " If there is agreement, we will begin to breathe, " they repeat in the halls of the Casa Rosada. The IMF's support against the bondholders was taken as a victory. A small and partial victory, strictly speaking.

According to several analysts, Argentina is looking to make "a two against one." The IMF and the Government versus the bondholders. In that vast fabric that contemplate bonds for about 100 billion dollars there is everything. Those who do not want to know anything or say that they cannot accept a take away, those who have already decided to accept and those who have such a great boredom with the country that they would prefer to make a deal so as not to return to these lands. In any case, in the albertista administration they insist that there is Plan A and Plan B, never a C. That is, renegotiation or default. There is no intermediate negotiation.

March 31 is still the date coveted by Martín Guzmán, the Minister of Economy, to announce an agreement. Guzman met again yesterday with Kristalina Georgieva, the director of the Fund, in Araba. The official and unofficial links with the Vatican point out that Francisco played a leading role in that approach . That since that visit to Rome the Government knew that the IMF would release a statement urging bondholders to think that the debt "is not sustainable" and that they consider an "appreciable contribution" to the country.

Before issuing the statement, the Fund waited for the announcement of increase for retirees. The albertista administration refuses to call it adjustment, although the figures are evident, except for retirees who charge the minimum. The most consubstantiated with the government project speak of redistribution. But the adjustment generates friction not only with those who receive salaries for more than 16,195 pesos, which they will charge less than with the repealed mobility formula. There are sectors of the own official fan that question the loss of income of a good portion of the retirees. Juan Grabois, on behalf of several social movements, spoke with Alejandro Vanoli, the head of the ANSeS, to ask for a subsidy plan for those who earn between 20 and 40 thousand pesos, and even up to 60 . Vanoli replied that they were going to study the idea. " At least for those who rent ," Grabois said.

In the middle of the discussion about the adjustments in the economy, the backlog of the tariffs of public services returned. Santiago Cafiero, the chief of staff, anticipated in an interview that there would be increases in electricity and gas. And Mario Meoni, the Minister of Transportation, talked about increases in the buses. Alberto got angry in private and conveyed that no one had talked about it with him. "I was furious, " they say in their surroundings. Will it be so like this? If it were, it would not be the best sign.




Source: clarin

All news articles on 2020-02-23

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