Even when the essential objective is to send a message to
his own and very harsh inmate in the Vatican
, revered after the death of Benedict XVI, the words of
Pope Francis
about Argentina are a precise blow to the heart of the government's story.
With a particular impact on
two of his political enemies from the ruling party
.
An old one,
Sergio Massa
;
and a new one,
Alberto Fernández
.
In an interview with the Associated Press
agency
, Jorge Bergoglio criticized the increase in inflation and poverty in Argentina: "What happened? Bad administration and bad policies."
The Supreme Pontiff also considered that the price increase is "impressive".
"Argentina at the moment, and I don't do politics, I read the data, it has an impressive level of inflation
," Francisco emphasized.
He is not a liar with the numbers.
With 5.1% in December, last year's price rise marked a record in 31 years, bordering on 95 points of increase.
The Pope's sayings are known when
the President comes from becoming entangled with another particular definition of inflation
.
He spoke of a "self-constructed" situation in people's heads.
This would explain, from his point of view, the failure in the war that he declared on prices in March 2022. Francisco sees something else.
And he says it.
In parallel, Bergoglio's mention of
poverty around 50%
has the same depth of damage for a Peronist government.
It is, by the way, a scourge that the bulk of the Argentine bishops have highlighted
in all their speeches and documents for years
.
These antecedents could be the excuse if at some point the Pope, the Church or the Government itself seek to play down the criticism.
The damage is already done.
new enemy
As the journalist
Sergio Rubin
has been telling in Clarín,
the relationship between Alberto Fernández and Pope Francis broke down when the President
, despite the Pope's request,
decided to promote the legalization of abortion as well
.
It did not dampen that, less than a year ago, Fernández baptized his son "Francisco"
with Fabiola Yáñez.
"The name of Francisco has a lot to do with the Pope, that name represents a lot of what the Pope represents as a leader. A world leader and I value him very much," the President explained in April last year.
The tension had already
been made clear in the meeting between the president and Bergoglio in May 2021
in Rome.
A 25-minute meeting, almost formal, which, according to Vatican sources, the Pontiff himself had tried to suspend.
old enemy
The Pope's criticisms, of course, also hit squarely the main person in charge of lowering inflation: Minister Massa.
In this case,
the bitterness is already historic
.
It was ostensible, years ago, when the former mayor of Tigre / candidate could not get a photo of him with a Francisco who was flying in popularity, recently assumed.
Former Economy Minister Martín Guzmán, in April 2021, when he went to seek (and obtained) support from the Pope for the negotiation with the IMF.
Massa was marked, among other things, for
allegedly "operating" against Bergoglio
, when the then Archbishop of Buenos Aires had his first public confrontations with former President Néstor Kirchner.
Another current fact also works against Massa.
The Pope had (has) a good relationship with former minister Martín Guzmán
, whom his successor accuses of several of the current ills of the economy.
Unlike Massa, Guzmán had key support when he renegotiated the debt with the IMF in April 2021.
Bergoglio received him, opened his office for him and even posed smiling with the official.
A whole kindness.
look too
Pope Francis criticized the increase in inflation and poverty in Argentina: "What happened? Bad administration and bad policies"
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