Guido Carelli Lynch
08/27/2020 - 14:08
- Clarín.com
- Politics
Martín Lousteau's visit to President Alberto Fernández in Olivos generated a bad mood among the hard- core of Together for Change and, above all, in the radicalism at a time when the relationship between the ruling party and the main opposition force is tense around the judicial reform . The head of state sought to build bridges with other opposition leaders and entrusted the secretary general of the presidency Julio Vitobello to communicate with the president of the UCR Alfredo Cornejo and Luis Naidenoff . The efforts failed.
The invitation to the current senator for the City had come from the President. A good part of the former ambassador's co-religionists in Washington - Lousteau is a radical affiliate - found out through the media.
The former Minister of Economy had notified Horacio Rodríguez Larreta and Diego Santilli of the call. He also communicated with the president of the UCR, Mendoza Cornejo.
Far from some journalistic transcendence, Larreta did not organize the conclave with Lousteau, but neither did he find out from the media. It was a unilateral effort by the President and the senator alerted him.
The former ambassador to the United States was upset with some associates who criticized him for attending the presidential invitation. “He thinks it's out of hypocrisy and maybe jealousy. It was not on behalf of anyone. He went when (Mauricio) Macri summoned him and he was not part of Cambiemos. Several were asking (a meeting). He commented to those who felt it was appropriate. And he even managed to get the President to communicate with one of them, ”said Lousteau's collaborators.
In fact, it was not the President who communicated with his allies, but the secretary general of the presidency. Julio Vitobello called Julio Cobos , who was meeting with Cornejo in Mendoza. The conversation was three to one.
The president's most trusted official argued that it was important to reach a consensus on some issues and expressed himself with almost the same arguments that Fernández made to Lousteau on Friday. Vitobello insisted that the reform is a project of Alberto (Fernández) and not Cristina (Kirchner ) and assured that it was the president who invited (Carlos) Beraldi to the advisory commission that could propose changes in the Court.
Cornejo and Cobos rejected the request. They demand, like Together for Change, that the Government withdraw the project to reach a consensus later on. The head of radicalism only wants to discuss an economic agenda and for months he has been asking for an audience alone with the President; a wish that was partially settled before the president's last videoconference with the heads of the congressional bloc.
Vitobello also contacted the head of the Juntos por el Cambio interblock in the Upper House Luis Naidenoff and got the same response. Some leaders of radicalism denied the government's efforts and took the opportunity to criticize Lousteau, because they interpret that it was functional to the government's wishes to divide and atomize the opposition. "They want what happens to them to happen to us," said one of the legislative swords of the centennial party.
The secretary general of the Presidency has a fluid dialogue with the president of the PRO bloc in Deputies Cristian Ritondo, but close to the former Buenos Aires security minister they denied any action in this regard.
The radical intern in the Province -which reflects the national scene of the party- also sneaks into the contest. Lousteau plays strongly with the Enrique “Coti” Nosiglia sector , who promotes Gustavo Posse as president of the Province committee. They say that Nosiglia would have participated in the conclave between Lousteau and the President, a detail that the senator does not deny.
The head of the inter-block of Deputies Mario Negri and Naidenoff bet on Maximiliano Abad (from the sector of the former vice-governor Daniel Salvador ).
The PRO leadership, headed by Patricia Bullrich , did not like the news. The one from the Civic Coalition , either. "We should know these things before to avoid unnecessary tensions," they say in the party founded by Elisa Carrió . Lousteau, who will vote against the judicial reform this Thursday, asked Fernández the need to delay the debate, in line with what Larreta had asked him by phone on Monday.
The President, the same day he received Lousteau, signed the DNU to declare the Internet and mobile telephony public service; an initiative that fell badly in the opposition despite the projects of radicalism (and Cobos in particular) in that direction.
“Martín did what was institutionally required: he spoke with the President of the party and with the Head of Government of the city he represents as a senator. And he did so because he is convinced that it is necessary to improve the levels of dialogue in politics and much more in this very serious situation ”, explained Lousteau's laderos.
In this context and while denying clashes between the senator and the head of Government, Larreta, who like his partner has a good and fluid dialogue with the President, opened the doors of the City to his political goddaughter María Eugenia Vidal , who hinted that it could compete again in the Capital.