10/11/2020 11:48 PM
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 10/11/2020 11:48 PM
In the midst of strong internal pressure in the Frente de Todos, with an economy in crisis and aggravated by the pandemic and with differences in the economic team itself that have been shooting versions for days, Alberto Fernández came out to convey that he does not think, at least for now , in making cabinet changes.
This was expressed to one of his most trusted officials.
“There will be no changes in the Cabinet.
The rumors start from the same as always that continue to speak to generate uncertainty, "said the President privately, as Clarín learned.
Far from the results that the Government expected after closing the agreement with the private bondholders, as a turning point towards a rebound in the economy, the situation continues to be pressing with jumps in the dollar, loss of reserves and terrible news of the social situation, with poverty shot up to 40.9%, but a much higher percentage if we take into account the worsening of the situation since the second quarter of the year.
Cristina Kirchner is the main factor of pressure towards Alberto F. in the Frente de Todos and has asked the President for changes.
The vice president is the majority shareholder of the very heterogeneous coalition that governs and her concern also has to do with next year's elections: with the well-known sensitivity of the Judiciary to the winds that anticipate changes in power, a bad result of the ruling party could complicate her situation even more in the multiple causes that she and her children face.
Above, the management of the pandemic is subject to all kinds of interpretations, with the longest quarantine in the world and, however, figures that have approached 500 daily deaths, without knowing the ceiling yet.
It is not the only conflict: different sectors of the ruling party are pushing for the security policy, for land seizures and even for foreign policy, as seen in the attacks by Christian sectors on Fernández and the Foreign Ministry's decision to support in the UN the report condemning the human rights violations in Venezuela.
The other leg of the ruling party, the head of Deputies, Sergio Massa, marked an internal stance on specific issues such as the illegality of land seizures, the relationship with Venezuela or the use of Taser guns.
Near him they came out to deny days ago rumors of a probable landing of Massa in the Cabinet headquarters.
But the central point, and which will have the greatest electoral weight, continues to be the economy, with a GDP that collapsed 19.1% in the second half of the year;
13.1% unemployment, loss of purchasing power of wages and pensions.
In the interview that Clarín gave him yesterday, the Deputy Chief of Staff, Cecilia Todesca, declared that the enormous gap between the official dollar and the financiers and the blue - a reflection of the problems facing the Government - “cannot be solved with a brutal change in rudder".
In this line, Fernández not only discarded changes - demanded by different sectors - but also defended, in an interview published yesterday by the site El rocket a la luna, that the Cabinet "has done an impressive job" and attributed to "the anguish that the pandemic causes us ”that“ does not let us see what we have done ”.
As an example, he put that - in his opinion - the government's measures prevented another million and a half people from falling into poverty (there are 18.5 million poor people in the country).
Regarding the relationship with Cristina, he assured that he will not take "distance" and although he admitted that they do not think "exactly the same in everything", he affirmed that "in the basic and in the central commitment we do not have any fissure".
Fernández once again supported his Minister of Economy, Martín Guzmán - he said that he is the one who "has the last word" - in the face of the differences he has with the president of the Central Bank, Miguel Pesce.
These differences marked their maximum expression in the definition of what to do with the dollar: Guzmán was more prone to an exchange rate split (and not to reinforce the stocks) and Pesce wanted to prevent more dollars from coming out via the savings dollar.
Despite Fernández's sayings, Pesce ended up winning the fight when on September 15 the super stocks were imposed.
Even so, in Guzmán's environment they assure that the relationship is good and that once a measure is adopted, it must be defended anyway.
Hence the defense of the stocks by the minister, beyond him another scheme favored.
Look also
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The Government seeks to advance the “recovery agenda” with a view to the 2021 elections
