08/10/2020 - 20:32
- Clarín.com
- Politics
Mauricio Macri has been privately criticizing the extension of the quarantine for the coronavirus for several weeks. This Monday he was explicit about this issue, when in a meeting via zoom with the members of the national board of Together for Change, he said that "the government's dead-end quarantine model is no longer valid." Macri said it from Europe, where he traveled last week to spend holidays in France and a few days at the headquarters of the International Federation of Associated Football, in Switzerland.
Macri's preaching, which is also held by leaders who consider themselves to be farthest from the government, contrasts with the attitude of the Buenos Aires head of government , Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, who explicitly supported each of the extensions of Social Isolation with his own presence. Mandatory promoted by President Alberto Fernández from March 20 until now.
Yesterday, strictly speaking, Rodríguez Larreta lent new support to that decision, when he visited the President at Quinta de Olivos. At the meeting, according to the spokesmen for the Buenos Aires head of government, Fernández and Rodríguez Larreta "reviewed the evolution of the quarantine data" and resolved to meet again "before Friday to update and jointly define the next steps ."
A Buenos Aires official also told Clarín that the City plans to open only a few activities, such as individual sports that are practiced outdoors - tennis, golf and rowing - and some of the commercial premises in the vicinity of the train stations of Constitución, Once and Retiro that until now could not open due to the fear of the local executive of agglomerations.
The possibility that restaurants and bars were allowed to place tables on the sidewalk to serve food and drinks there is ruled out. That plan had been analyzed, but the episode that occurred a few days ago in a Recoleta brewery, which was closed when users of social networks began to upload photos that showed dozens of young people drinking beer in front of the premises, ended up closing that possibility .
Officials close to Rodríguez Larreta confided to this newspaper that the Head of Government is not willing to allow increased circulation in the streets when they are experiencing "the worst days of the pandemic," as described by the Buenos Aires team.
Rodríguez Larreta plans to meet this week with the Buenos Aires governor, Axel Kicillof , and then again with the president to jointly announce the new extension of the quarantine that expires on August 16 and that will probably extend another two-week period.
On August 20, there will be 5 months of quarantine due to the uninterrupted coronavirus pandemic in the City of Buenos Aires and the Buenos Aires suburbs, a restriction that did not exist in any of the other cities in the world affected by infections in 2020.
According to the government of Buenos Aires, Rodríguez Larreta will continue to agree with the President and Kicillof each of the next openings of activities. " Everything that Horacio announces has been previously discussed with Alberto and Axel, " explains a man from his environment in a phrase that stands in stark contrast to the criticism of the "dead-end" quarantine that Macri describes since his stay in Switzerland.