Claudio Savoia
08/18/2021 7:20 PM
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 08/18/2021 7:20 PM
The earthquake shocks caused by the dissemination of the photo of Fabiola Yañez's birthday party at Quinta de Olivos during the hardest stage of the quarantine, in July of last year, decided the government to take an extreme measure
: publish the videos of that celebration
to try to cut the hemorrhage of images, evidence and testimonies with which
the
affair
threatens to color the entire electoral campaign.
After the initial confusion, the errors and contradictions in the explanation of the scandal and the subsequent anger over its political consequences, the government is now experiencing hours of panic: after
an investigation - illegal - on all the guests at the celebration
, the espionage work revealed that there are more photos of the meeting, and that
three videos were
also
filmed during the birthday.
As
Clarín said
, the first person to point out regarding the dissemination of the most famous photo of the dinner in Olivos was Fabiola's hairdresser,
Federico Abraham
: "he is a cholulo, we know that he sent the photograph in which they all appear
at least two people
", ratify this newspaper from the government.
But the first lady's colourist wasn't the only one with the quick finger to forward that explosive material. The intelligence tasks discovered that another of the guests,
Stefanía Domínguez
,
had offered the photographs taken during the party to the media.
The information reached the president on Saturday, while he was still trying to put out the flames of anger caused by the unfortunate explanation with which he blamed his wife for the illegal party on Friday.
The official investigation concluded that
among the ten guests there are four who have photos or videos
of the celebration
in their possession
.
And although at first they sought to close ranks by offering a joint defense before the courts to put themselves at the disposal of the prosecutor
Ramiro González
-who is investigating the alleged crimes committed for violating the quarantine in Quinta de Olivos- that strategy was shipwrecked 24 hours later.
Domínguez decided to get out of the group represented by the lawyer
Juan Pablo Fioribello
, who on Tuesday had submitted a brief for each of the eight guests who accepted his technical defense.
The lawyer Juan Pablo Fioribello and his partner Mariano Lizardo appeared this Monday at Comodoro Py to make available eight of the ten guests at Fabiola's party.
Photo Andrés D'Elía.
According to
judicial sources
confirmed to
Clarín
, the young entrepreneur from Chubut is now defended by
Mauricio D'Alessandro
, another media lawyer who is also a
Tandil councilor for the opposition alliance Together for Change.
That loss of the official account, but above all the deep anger of the Kirchner wing of the government - beginning with the vice president herself - sowed panic at the top of the government, and
forced to rethink all the plans.
With the certainty that sooner or later the images would be broadcast, enlarging the gap in the keel of the ship on which the ruling party is sailing towards the legislative elections, Alberto Fernández ordered to deliver the videos to the friendly press for publication.
That ship now floats over turbulent and unknown waters: will the move have been enough to coagulate the scandal in time and be able to redirect the campaign? Will this be the last chapter of the black book of Olivos and the quarantine, whose first page was written with the VIP vaccination? How many of those attending Fabiola's party and others of the dozens of social gatherings that took place in the presidential residence will have evidence and anecdotes to share?
Will there be images of the meeting in which Alberto Fernández himself celebrated his birthday, on April 2, 2020?
Questions keep piling up about baffled officials. Only the most lucid among them admit that the attempt to end the scandal responds more to voluntarism than to an efficient political response to the uproar. And they know that the daring play of this Wednesday
will not be the end point.