The Government faces a decisive week on 4 fronts

Guido Carelli Lynch

04/25/2021 8:01 AM

• Clarín.com

• Politics

Updated 04/25/2021 8:01 AM

Shocked by the death of Transport Minister Mario Meoni, President Alberto Fernández and his administration face

a decisive week on multiple fronts

. The Executive will present

its defense before the Supreme Court by the DNU

that suspended the face-to-face classes at the AMBA and the City objected; in addition, the update of the minimum wage is defined; rushes a new price agreement and

outlines the new restrictions before the advance of the second wave of coronavirus.

The political, economic and health situation

does not give respite

. This Monday, at the deadline, the Treasury Attorney Carlos Zannini will present to the Supreme Court the arguments of the Government to defend the current presidential decree that suspended face-to-face classes at the AMBA and which the City did not comply with.

They work in the judicial strategy of the Government, in addition to the head of the State attorneys, the Legal and Technical secretariat led by Vilma Ibarra and the Chief of Cabinet. The Casa Rosada will argue that the current DNU

was issued to protect the health system in the midst of the national emergency declared by the pandemic

. “It will be difficult for the Court to say that national regulations in the framework of a national health emergency

cannot be applied

. It comes from telling Formosa that it cannot take stricter measures than those defined by the Nation, ”

one of the officials ingrained with the government's strategy

told

Clarín

.

They insist that the head of Government Horacio Rodríguez Larreta applied the national DNUs in health matters throughout 2020, including those that prohibited presence in classrooms. An adverse result

could weaken the Executive

that discards this scenario in its forecasts. In the City, on the other hand, they believe that the highest Court could issue

a Solomonic ruling

and agree with both, but they emphasize that the Government was intelligent in shielding the decree in Congress.

The tension with Rodríguez Larreta is on the rise. The delegates of the President and the Head of Government

do not rule out an approach

with meetings to define the restrictions in the AMBA as of April 30. In the Casa Rosada they insist that for this it would be necessary before the head of government made a gesture in that direction, as public as was his rejection of the closure of Buenos Aires schools.

Although in Fernández's environment they insist that the doors of Balcarce 50 are open to all governors, the government is undermining the already injured bridges of dialogue. "Rodríguez Larreta will have to

take care of the dead,

" they say. They hope that the head of government will imitate the radical senator Luis Naidenoff, who after holding demonstrations against Gildo Insfrán presented him in writing, and in person, his recommendations to apply in Formosa.

The Government will finish defining the new measures

between Wednesday and Thursday,

when it already has an updated diagnosis of the impact of the current restrictions. They emphasize that the City did not consider that public opinion is hyper volatile in times of pandemic, because it goes from fed up to fear and obedience to the rise in cases. "We also have to

recalculate,

because reality forces us," they grant.

Before, on Tuesday, it will be a day of marches in the City: the Salary Council will meet to update the new minimum credit, which until today is $ 21,600 compared to a basic basket above

$ 60 thousand

. The increase not only serves as a thermometer for the rest of the parity; it also serves to update the complementary social wage - half the minimum wage - charged by 870,000 workers in the popular economy.

The Government will seek to apply the same guideline that it lowered at the end of the year (although in public it says that it does not put ceilings on the negotiations): in 2021 wages must beat inflation.

The agreement - in three tranches - would be at least 3 points above annual inflation, which the government projects on paper at 29 percent.

The condition, of course, while the projections show a price hike by the end of the year close to 50% is that the Salary Council meet again in 6 months.

As

Clarín

published,

the minimum wage experienced

a 15% loss of purchasing power

in the last 15 months

and compared to the end of 2015 it fell by 36%.

Even so, the Government, employers and unions trust that there will be an agreement and that the award of the Minister of Labor will not be necessary.

The 4.8 points of inflation in March fell like

a bomb

in the economic Cabinet, where at the same time they breathe due to the increase in the collection that drives the export of soybeans. The Executive will advance in the coming days with the plan to freeze prices, especially of the food basket, for six months. In the most important offices of the Casa Rosada they rant against the businessmen. “The unions complied; businessmen, no ”, they point out and promise to apply the supply law. In the UIA they point out the “covid cost”, in labor matters (20%) and logistics (35%); in addition to general inflation.

Towards the weekend, the Executive will advance with the plan - already definitively agreed with the opposition - to postpone the elections. Interior Minister Eduardo "Wado" de Pedro will visit the Electoral Chamber on Thursday and the Chamber of Deputies a day later. The calendar - with a deadline for May 10 - will force an agreement and a speedy vote in Congress.