Matías Kulfas, now former Argentine Minister of Productive Development, in February 2020.Telam
The president of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, has expelled this Saturday from his Government the Minister of Productive Development, Matías Kulfas.
He did not forgive him for criticizing the vice president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, just when she is trying to reach a truce in their disputes.
Kulfas was part of Fernández's closest circle, and each time smaller, in his own Cabinet.
His departure is a serious blow to his power in the fight that he maintains with Kirchnerism within the government coalition.
The name of the replacement will define who has won and who has lost in this new chapter of the Argentine political soap opera.
The crisis was as short as it was sudden.
On Friday, during the events for the centenary of the state oil company YPF, Kirchner criticized the fact that the 33-millimeter plates for the pipes of the Néstor Kirchner gas pipeline were manufactured in Brazil and not in Argentina.
Hours later, journalists who follow energy issues received a small text via WhatsApp from the Kulfas ministry with harsh attacks on Kirchnerism.
The text accused officials from La Cámpora, the group related to the vice president that controls the tenders for the sector from Energía Argentina, of having benefited Techint, the winner, with the specifications.
“If instead of putting that specification [33 millimeters thick] they had put 31 mm, as are the gas pipelines in Europe, pipes could have been supplied from another company that produces in Villa Constitución (Laminados industriales SA) [in Argentina and not in Brazil].
The ones who are using the pen incorrectly are Cristina's officials," the sources said.
The Ministry of Productive Development has allocated 1,200 million dollars in the 2022 budget. The Néstor Kirchner gas pipeline is the largest infrastructure project in Argentina and exceeds that figure, with 1,500 million dollars that the Casa Rosada has had to raise with international financing .
Once finished, it is expected that by the end of next year, the gas pipeline will transport the excess gas produced by the Vaca Muerta field, key to reducing the shortage that is plaguing the Argentine energy system today.
The work is developed by Energía Argentina, today in the hands of Kirchnerism.
To attack the gas pipeline is to attack Cristina Fernández de Kirchner,
The vice president responded on Saturday morning to the criticism that the ministry leaked to the press.
“Very unfair and, above all, very painful that these types of attacks are carried out by officials of the government of the Frente de Todos.
The worst of all: without showing their faces, in
off
, lying and using journalists.
With mistakes and successes, I always spoke and acted up front.
Sorry,” she wrote on Twitter.
The fight with albertismo thus reached levels reminiscent of the weeks that followed the defeat in the Legislative elections last year, when Kirchner managed to get Fernández to fire his spokesperson, Juan Pablo Biondi.
The vice president then accused him of promoting press operations against him, as she has done now with Kulfas.
President Fernández, surprisingly, immediately sided with Kirchner, to the detriment of his minister.
“I share the response given by Energía Argentina to a publication based on a supposed off from government officials,” Fernández wrote on Twitter.
“I trust in the moral integrity and in the suitability of those who carry out the tender for the Néstor Kirchner Gas Pipeline,” he added.
Matías Kulfas was one of the ministers who received the most attacks from the former president's environment.
Fernández always kept him in his position, in an effort to defend his own troops and maintain portions of power.
His departure is a heavy blow for the president, but he also adds to his efforts to rebuild the political relationship with his vice president, necessary to have options in next year's general elections.
Subscribe here to the EL PAÍS América
newsletter
and receive all the key information on current affairs in the region