Guido Carelli Lynch
03/05/2021 21:10
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 03/05/2021 21:20
Neither the rumors about a possible withdrawal of the Minister of Justice
Marcela Losardo
nor the repression of protesters in Formosa sneaked into the first working day of
the Economic and Social Council
that
Alberto Fernández
closed this Friday in Parque Norte.
The launch of the institutional dialogue platform to plan medium and long-term policies that the Government coordinates and brings together trade unionists, businessmen and social organizations - a campaign promise from the President - this time was an oasis in the middle of the situation.
Its launch on February 19 had been overshadowed by the unveiling of the VIP vaccines that resulted in the forced resignation of the Minister of Health
Ginés González García
.
“I ask that we realize how important (the Council) is.
We deserve to live in a country that stops dividing and, as the Pope says, no one is saved alone.
We are saved together or we suffer as we have done up to now: separated and fighting each other ”, declared the head of state in front of a
heterogeneous audience
of union members, representatives of business chambers and social movements.
The
President's
compounding
speech
was diametrically opposed to the diatribe against Justice, the media and the opposition that he raised on Monday in front of the Legislative Assembly and to the criticisms that he repeated on the morning of Friday at a ceremony in Ituzaingó.
President Alberto Fernández with the head of the UIA Miguel Acevedo at the inauguration of the Economic and Social Council.
Photo: Presidency
“Many wonder if I stopped being a man of dialogue.
One day (they say) I am a puppet
, another day I am a proud;
things that happen to me, ”Fernández pointed out in the only irony he fired during his speech at Costanera Norte.
On the other hand, he had words of affection for the president of the Argentine Industrial Union (UIA), Miguel Acevedo, who accompanied him on the open-air platform together with the general secretary of the GCT,
Héctor Daer
;
and the President of the Council, the Secretary for Strategic Affairs,
Gustavo Beliz
.
"The day you leave your duties, I'm going to miss you a lot," the president surprised when addressing Acevedo.
He also welcomed the presence of
Carlos Achetoni
, president of the Argentine Agrarian Federation and the only representative of the Liaison Table present at the event.
The head of state also celebrated the participation of representatives of the Popular Economy, such as
Esteban “Gringo” Castro
, president of the UTEP (former CTEP).
"Argentina loves to engage in sterile discussions that do not lead to much (...) the secret is to all work together so that Argentina works," he reflected.
To break the ice of an eclectic crowd, before the
8-hour
work
day,
Beliz proposed that each participant choose a photo that symbolizes the present of Argentina and a line from a song by Peteco Carabajal.
Fernández, in the end, did the same: he chose a stone path, with the sun at the end of the path.
“I have had to walk a cobbled path, but
I see the Sun, I see the horizon
, and my task is the first sentence of the song: I leave notes on the stones.
Every note from me is my word, I am here for us to unite, ”he said.
The working day, which was only interrupted for an informal lunch, served strictly for the 30 counselors to get to know each other.
So far there have been no concrete proposals.
They were divided into
5 work tables
: Community of Care and Food Safety;
Education and Jobs of the Future;
Productivity with Social Cohesion;
Integral Ecology and Sustainable Development and Innovative Democracy.
In each one, ministers and officials also sat the head of the AFIP, Mercedes Marcó del Pont;
the Ministers of Productive Development,
Matías Kulfas
;
Public Works,
Gabriel Katopodis
;
and of
Social
Development
Daniel Arroyo
;
among others.
The
absence
of representatives of the opposition in the convocation sneaked into some of the tables, although some of the businessmen present did not rule out that they could join.
Each table will in turn be divided into 5 missions (25 in total) to which technical teams from the different organizations will be incorporated.
The President and Beliz, like several of the councilors, do not abandon the idea that the tripartite dialogue body - which will have a
term of one thousand days
of work - be legitimized through
an act of Congress
, as originally planned.
The electoral campaign must first pass.
One of the surprises of the afternoon was the reappearance in an official act of the former president of the Deputies during Kirchnerism and former candidate for Buenos Aires governor,
Julián Domínguez
, who accompanied the leader of SMATA,
Ricardo Pignanelli
, the only speaker who did not take the stage .
The original location of the event was to be the former ESMA, but finally the premises of the Commerce union were chosen.
Beliz thanked the union secretary, Armando Cavalieri, an old acquaintance for whom he did private consultancies before assuming his position.
The next working session of the new Council will be on March 25.
Comfortable, away from the noise of the situation and urgent concerns such as prices and wages - which are discussed in other areas - the President chose to talk about the future and compared himself to a conductor.
“My task is that all the instruments harmonize so that Argentina sounds good.
And for that there is only one way, which is this: to
sit at a table, in diversity and tune each instrument
so that they all sound at the right time and on the right note ”, he said.
