Foreign Minister Olaf Scholz's visit to the country last Saturday exposed
operational and structural failures
in the functioning of Argentines in the public administration that could be considered tragicomic.
One of them is recounted in great detail this Wednesday in Ricardo Roa's editorial, in
Clarín
.
The journalist recounted the incident suffered in the Caputo room of the San Martín Palace, when on Saturday, during the meeting between the Argentine and German delegations, a
flag fell on the head of Gabriel Rubinstein, Vice Minister of
Economy.
The wind that came from an open window in the living room unbalanced her.
And the windows had to be opened because it was hot and the air conditioners were off, because there was
authorization to spend energy only in the Libertador room
, where President Alberto Fernández and Scholz met.
Although Scholz seemed happy, and what was agreed during the visit was complied with, another chain of errors left the Presidency and the Chancellery exposed.
The Minister of Economy, Agriculture and Production,
Sergio Massa
warned that he would not be able to go to the Fernández-Scholz meeting due to a commitment he had with his parents, who were already elderly.
Massa was one of the protagonists of the meeting because he
had to sign several of the agreements
that had been negotiated with Minister Santiago Cafiero by ambassadors Ulrich Sante (German in Buenos Aires) and Fernando Brun (Argentine in Berlin).
The order to reactivate the works in Neuquén for the Chihuido dam, among others.
The agreements were signed
by a surprised but empowered Cafiero.
Officials were surprised by Cecilia Todesca, the Secretary for International Economic Relations, who again showed her curious remoteness -or phobia- of her before the businessmen, with whom she should speak.
She was excused from reading the speech because of the designer glasses she wears and it was not clear if they were for distance or near vision.
And meanwhile, Sante chewed his surprise -and anger- because Casa Rosada warned him that Massa would not be in the bilateral
just when he was about to get off at the San Martín Palace in the diplomatic car that was taking him with none other than Scholz
.
In their homes, because it was Saturday, many diplomats and employees of the Foreign Ministry found satisfaction in spreading the
incident with the heat
, the window, the wind, the flag and Rubinstein's wounded head.
Also with the fact that
there weren't even doctors as should happen before a visit of such a level
.
It happens that
the building conditions of the Chancellery have become a nightmare
and a subject of internal complaint in the Ministry.
In this case, the previous meeting of the Foreign Service Personnel Association (APSEN) ended with a strong complaint to the ministry authorities for the appointment of
Maria Cristina Perceval
, the Mendoza leader who is a friend of Vice President Cristina Kirchner, as Special Representative for Feminist Foreign Policy.
The diplomats complained that in addition to
overlapping Perceval's work with five directorates that already work in the Foreign Ministry
and that deal with the same thing, his salary and the infrastructure will consume "manifestly scarce resources that could be dedicated to "other pressing needs."
And they mention the
"urgent reforms that require the building facilities"
of the Esmeralda and Arenales building to make it "a decent workplace" for a staff of approximately 4,000 people who alternate between teleworking and face-to-face due to the state of the place .
The Chancellery building designed in the 1980s and completed in the late 1990s has glass windows that do not open and relies on a broken central air-conditioning system.
Employees say they are
"drowning in heat" this summer.
Due to lack of budget they have not been able to fix the air
since it is a major job because they have to change air centrals, open the roofs and remove a good part of the building structure.
The last meeting between the APSEN and the Secretary of Coordination and Planning, Pablo Delgado, the person in charge of the budget that the State gives them, was hilarious.
On the one hand
, he rejected the union's offer that they buy some fans
for the offices because, he told them, it was a State faculty through the Chancellery.
And on the other, he informed them that there were four air conditioning towers in the building, and that only one was working.
And that according to the contracted company, a second tower would be repairing soon and would be back in operation this weekend.
That there is an intention to repair the third.
On the fourth tower, its deterioration is such that they will have to replace it but there is no date. There is no money, there are no
dollars for imported parts.
Another concern that arose is the situation of the so-called House 2, which is part of the Palacio San Martín complex.
It currently has structural problems.
In the basements, fixed structures have been fixed that support the floor, because
there is a danger of collapse
.
The serious thing is that it is an area with high circulation during official events since it is the obligatory step to the Libertador room, where -for example- Alberto Fernández and Olaf Scholz met.
look too
The heat, the Germans and a mast at the head of Sergio Massa's two
After 14 years, there will be German financing for a dam in Neuquén
