Federico Mayol
05/08/2021 10:11
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 05/08/2021 10:11
After a week of
furious inmates
and the heated debate about the direction of economic management, Alberto Fernández will begin an
intense five-day tour of
Lisbon, Madrid, Paris and Rome
this Sunday
to try to get support for the renegotiation with the Monetary Fund and the Paris Club, and in
search of a political oxygenation
of its leadership, rubbled by Kirchnerism, the most hostile sector of the coalition.
The trip, which ended up being made official on the edge due to the
complex health situation
of the country as a result of the global pandemic, will culminate with a cucarda that Fernández will be able to exhibit again in less than a year and a half of management:
the second meeting
with Pope Francis , scheduled for
Thursday.
Accompanied by the first lady and the chancellor,
Felipe Solá
;
the Secretary General of the Presidency,
Julio Vitobello
;
the Secretary of Strategic Affairs,
Gustavo Beliz
, and the Secretary of Communication and Press,
Juan Pablo Biondi
, Fernández will land this Sunday at noon in Europe.
The flight rented to Aerolineas Argentinas will also have among its passengers
Martín Guzmán
, the Minister of Economy who in the last week was beaten by all Kirchnerism, a devious attack on the heart of the Casa Rosada's economic program.
Fernández and Guzmán will seek support from the European Union for the renegotiation with the IMF and the Paris Club
, two open fronts of the minister's management that in recent times began to meet resistance in the toughest sector of the coalition,
concerned much more about the electoral calendar
than about macroeconomic imbalances.
This Thursday, for example, the upper house obtained an opinion on the project of Oscar Parrilli, Cristina Kirchner's right hand in the Senate, which proposes to use it to "alleviate the pandemic", and not to pay "debt or interest", to the US $ 4,300 in Drawing Rights that the IMF will send to Argentina as one of its member countries.
Francisco and Kristalina
Rome will be, in that sense, a crucial stop on the tour: in addition to the conclave with Francisco - the first had taken place at the end of January 2020, before the outbreak of the pandemic in the Western world - to whom Fernández already told On repeated occasions thanking him for his support for the renegotiation of the sovereign debt,
Guzmán will share an activity with Kristalina Georgieva, the director of the IMF
, at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences of the Vatican, before getting on the plane back.
On Wednesday, at his regular press conference, Gerry Rice, the Fund's communications director, dedicated a statement of support to the head of the Palacio de Hacienda, questioned locally: "
We are fully involved in the talks with Minister Guzmán
."
The Minister of Economy, Martín Guzmán, and the head of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, will meet again in El vaticano.
The minister, who ended up losing the temporary confidence he had garnered from Cristina Kirchner by the summer, was left at the center of the storm for the last week due to his failed decision to resign the undersecretary of Energy, the now famous
Federico Basualdo
, a official who reports to Kirchnerism.
Guzmán tried to move him two Fridays ago
without notifying the Instituto Patria
, with the aim of advancing a
double-digit rate increase
in the payment of Edenor and Edesur customers in the City and in Greater Buenos Aires, the epicenter of the K vote.
For now, the Casa Rosada has implemented an increase of 9%: the cap requested, for example, by Governor
Axel Kicillof
, whose interference in the economic area began to cause distress in the markets.
Before getting on the plane, however, the minister upped the ante: "
We have to be self-critical, energy subsidies are pro-rich
in a country with 57% child poverty," he shot while sitting meters away from the President.
The agenda
With this local context, Fernández and his entourage will arrive at the European spring, a tour in which the Casa Rosada has an important expectation.
First
Lisbon
, where the head of state will meet his partner Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and share a lunch with the prime minister, Antonio Costa.
Later in
Madrid
, convulsed by the triumph of the Spanish right: a meeting with King Felipe VI at the Palacio de la Zarzuela and a meal offered in honor of the delegation by
Pedro Sánchez
, who was very in tune with the President.
Then it will be the turn of
Paris
, which begins little by little to lift the confinement measures due to the coronavirus: on the agenda are a
meeting with businessmen
at the Argentine embassy in the French city, and a conversation with
Emmanuel Macron
at the Eliseo.
Fernández and Macron spoke by phone on February 5.
They chatted for a long time about the global shortage of COVID vaccines.
On that occasion,
the Frenchman expressed his support for the country's renegotiation with the IMF.
The Government seeks, in this line, an extra support to close the chapter with the Fund for the
US $ 44,000 million that the organization lent
to the administration of Mauricio Macri, and with the Paris Club. For the latter, Argentina needs
yes or yes to
reach an agreement with the IMF. It is part of the internal discussion between the coalition partners, whose position the president will try to consolidate on this tour.
In
Italy
, meanwhile, Fernández will have lunch with his counterpart Sergio Mattarella at the Quirinale Palace, and then a working meeting with
Mario Dragui
, president of the Council of Ministers.
The role of Dragui, who assumed this year with a multiparty coalition, may be relevant: known as
"Super Mario"
, this septuagenarian economist
presided over the European Central Bank
and had an outstanding step in international private banking.
It has more than oiled links in the region.
NE
Look also
The International Monetary Fund supported Martín Guzmán and said that he is his interlocutor in the negotiations
Martín Guzmán reappeared and criticized Kirchnerism's historical subsidy policy