04/24/2021 12:35 PM
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 04/24/2021 12:35 PM
Visibly pained by the death of Mario Meoni, President Alberto Fernández
broke
when he remembered his Transport Minister this Saturday, who lost his life this Friday night in an accident on Route 7.
"Believe me, I lose someone ... ufff.
I loved him very much
and he was really valuable," said the president with a broken voice while highlighting the virtues of the deceased official.
"He was one of those specimens of politics who are purebred, but who give their best with effort, commitment, honesty and solidarity," described Fernández.
In dialogue with Radio 10, the head of state revealed that he learned of Meoni's death through a call from the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Sergio Massa.
At that moment, he said,
"I was collapsed
.
"
The President, in one of his many meetings with the Minister of Transport.
While the Transportation Safety Board investigates the causes of the overturning of the car in which Meoni was traveling alone to Junín, the Buenos Aires Minister of Security, Sergio Berni, pointed out the state of the route and spoke of "accumulation of water." Fernández, for his part, recalled that he
always advised Meoni not to drive alone and at night
on his repeated trips to his Junín, a city of which he had been councilor and mayor for three consecutive terms.
"With Sergio [Massa] we always talked to him and
told him to stop traveling
to Junín on Friday nights, because he had a habit of driving his car and leaving alone. We were always worried because he was not a minister who finished from working at five in the afternoon, hopefully he
would leave his office at ten
", revealed the President.
"Siem
We used to say to him: 'Stop, everyone at some point our bodies fail us'.
When Sergio called me at one-thirty in the morning and we cried together saying why don't we just love each other?
Oh my God.
He never lost the concept of ordinary people, that's why he drove his car.
With Sergio we told him: '
Crazy, stop, you can't leave at ten at night on Fridays driving to Junín
.
But one day life betrayed him. "
Meoni was mayor of Junín.
AFP photo.
On the other hand, Fernández spoke of his relationship with the minister, whom he met "in 2003, when he was mayor and I was chief of staff."
From there, he stressed, they forged a bond,
a friendship
.
What's more,
He said that Meoni had been hit by
one of the worst places in the pandemic
, which is transportation.
"It had to be stopped and it was done with an incomparable quality and effort," said the President.
In that sense, he added that Meoni "was very attentive to the issue of air transport that brought tourists, to slow that down."
Meoni had participated this Friday at noon in a ceremony with the President in Rosario, within the framework of the Alternative Capitals program.
In this regard, Fernández described one of his last dialogues with the minister: "We were talking about
the things that we had pending
. We had everything finished to start ordering the tender for the waterway."
"He told me a lot about something that worried him a lot, which were the safe stops so that people are not mistreated there by those who commit crimes. At night
everything was clouded with this terrible news
. I was very sorry," he added shocked Fernández.
Finally, he highlighted the personality of the radical leader and reference of the Renewing Front within the Frente de Todos: "He was a young man, he had a very healthy life.
It is a huge loss.
People out there do not perceive him because he had a certain profile. under"
"He was a man of enormous experience.
A man of immense honesty, I have valued that very much in him
. It is an immense loss for me and for the State. They had an exemplary minister in Mario. He was a man of integrity, completeness and a unwavering honesty and who gave everything to do things well ", concluded the President.
Meoni will be fired this Saturday in a brief and intimate ceremony in Junín, in which Alberto Fernández will participate.
Meoni, 56, died in a traffic accident near the Buenos Aires town of San Andrés de Giles.
LGP
Look also
Mario Meoni died: the Transport Safety Board investigates the causes of the accident
Mario Meoni died: Sergio Berni's hypothesis about the accident