04/24/2021 12:46 AM
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 04/24/2021 12:58 AM
The news shook the country on Friday night: the Minister of Transportation of the Nation,
Mario Meoni, crashed with his Ford Mondeo at kilometer 112 of Route 7 in San Andrés de Giles
, in the interior of the province of Buenos Aires.
He was going from the Capital to Junín to reunite with his family, after having participated in the morning meeting led by President Alberto Fernández in Rosario.
Born on January 22, 1965 in Ascensión (General Arenales district), 50 kilometers from Junín, he was the son of Andrés Meoni - a highway operator - and Esmeralda Traverso.
And Junín was his "city of always", where he lived since he was six years old and where he
reached the Intendancy in 2003
, ruling for three consecutive terms.
In 2015 he ran again, although there he was defeated by the candidate of Together for Change, Pablo Petrecca.
Meoni completed her primary studies at a rural school and completed her secondary school at the Nacional de Junín.
From a very young age he also dedicated himself to work (including in a bar).
Married in 1991 to Laura Oliva, they had twins Robertino and Felipe, now 16 years old.
“I started with the topic of Transportation seeing how my dad drove a motor grader.
In fact, although my family is from Junín, I was born in Ascensión, in a rural camp that was for employees.
My life was marked by Roads
”, he told in an extensive talk with
Clarín
, shortly after taking over as Minister of Transportation of the Nation, in the presidency of Alberto Fernández.
With Junín as “his” territory, he was also a Sarmiento fan (and shared that passion with Boca).
Sergio Massa with Mario Meoni.
Photo Press Frente Renovador.
His political career
began in the Radical Civic Union in 1987
, when Raúl Alfonsín ruled the country, in the first period of the recently restored democracy.
At that time, Meoni worked on the National Food Plan, one of the most ambitious goals that Alfonsín had set for himself.
Always within the radicalism, Meoni was elected councilor between 1991 and 1995, and at the end of those mandates he was elected provincial deputy.
But, later, he was part of the "transversality" in which radical sectors were linked to others that emerged from Peronism, including formerly militated with Leopoldo Moreau, currently an ultra-Kirchnerist.
Since the middle of the last decade, Meoni began to be a member of the military - and to be part of the leading casts - in
the Renovador Front led by Sergio Massa
, in whom he has been referred to today. "He will inevitably be president, he is a leader with extraordinary capacity and has human qualities that are essential for me," Meoni pointed out, referring to Massa, who led the Renewal Front in the 2013 legislative elections, in the 2015 presidential elections and again. in the legislative 2017.
Meoni also said that he had met Massa more than two decades ago, when both were provincial deputies and
only a wall separated their offices
. The bond intensified with the Plural Agreement promoted by Néstor Kirchner during his presidency and which, at some point, made Massa head of the Cabinet and he summoned Meoni to his team. He did it despite the fact that the Juninense had aligned himself with Julio Cobos after the "no positive" of the 125.
In 2013 Meoni
accompanied Massa for the creation of the Renewing Front.
When he left the Junín administration, Massa chose him to occupy one of his positions on the Banco Provincia board of directors. And after the alliance with Kirchnerism in 2019, which led to the electoral triumph of the Frente de Todos, Massa was able to get Meoni the green light to be appointed Minister of Transport.
Shortly after the new administration began, in December 2019 and in terms of political positioning, Meoni pointed out that “in Argentina there is an economic crack that is stronger than the political one.
Something that perhaps was always underground, not so exposed, but that marginalized millions of people.
And Alberto Fernández wants to recover the most vulnerable sectors.
Ultimately, this is also a struggle for the dispossessed that radicalism has already spoken about since the time of Hipólito Yrigoyen ”.
Regarding his objectives in Transport, he had indicated: “We will place great emphasis on controls and we will guarantee that what is established in the tenders is strictly complied with.
We are also going to
make the transportation subsidy policy transparent
, which today demands 90 billion pesos a year ”.
However, all the central objectives of his Ministry - as well as other areas of the government - have been subject for more than a year to the drama of the coronavirus pandemic, which forced to rethink the different functions. And so Meoni had to bustle from the first moment on restrictions at borders, at airports and on travel. Restrictions that were resumed a few weeks ago and that forced a constant readjustment in the activity of airports and airlines. Or, for example, a few days ago when, in the midst of the new measures to stop the second wave of Covid that hit the country, Meoni -after the meeting with the Chief of Staff, Santiago Cafiero, and the Minister of Health, Carla Vizzotti- announced "the necessary adjustments to fix the windows in public transport and that they cannot be closed."
He specified that "what we do are complementary measures to fix windows so that they cannot be closed." There he specified that there were "18 thousand bus units" operating in the metropolitan area and around 200 trains operating every day. He also participated in the efforts for the general reduction of transport in recent weeks and in the discussions around the return of students to schools. There he pointed out that "education represents 25% of users in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires, which will force a rethinking without peak hours."
Meoni had also suffered some health problems and in February, after a discomfort in the heart area,
he underwent angioplasty at the Güemes Sanatorium
, from which he recovered quickly.
His death, last night in the accident on the road, caused deep pain in all political circles.
Look also
Mario Meoni died: "Nothing I say will be enough to express the pain and sadness I feel," Sergio Massa said goodbye
The mayor of Junín shocked by the death of Mario Meoni
