In times when there are plenty of intentions and signs, but not confirmations,
Gerardo Morales
has no qualms about repeating his presidential candidacy over and over again.
"I am a candidate, yes, and not only that, I am convinced that I am going to be President. At the end of the month or beginning of March, at the latest, I will launch myself," says the head of the Radical Civic Union.
After a week of intense activity within Juntos por el Cambio, with the meeting of the National Table, and on the eve of the PAS (non-mandatory) that will define the candidate for governor of La Pampa by the opposition, the Jujeño president spoke with
Clarín
on the central issues of the situation.
- Elisa Carrió was added to the list of candidates for Together for Change. Is there room for everyone in PASO?
- Welcome, I'm glad you're a candidate.
She is one of the founders of Together for Change and she has all the merit and ability to be encouraged to compete in the PASO.
I don't think the number of applicants is a problem, the most important thing is to have a program.
And we all agree on that, there is very good energy among those of us who want to be president.
- At the last meeting of Together for Change there was talk of an "economic bomb". Who is going to exploit?
- The Frente de Todos, as we expressed in the communiqué we signed, is leaving us with a worse situation than in 2015, with inflation that is completely out of control.
They take it for granted that Together for Change is going to govern the country and that is why they are going to buckle down in the province of Buenos Aires to prevent us from managing.
- Are you still talking to Sergio Massa? In Together for Change, does that closeness they have bother you?
- I haven't been talking to him lately.
He is part of another space, but as happens with the President, being governor I have to have the institutional dialogue with them that there should be.
The fact that I have maintained a certain political friendship with Massa for a while does not imply that I agree with him.
- So, are you critical of your management as Minister of Economy?
- None of the measures he promoted have had an effect.
Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, Gerardo Morales, Martín Lousteau and Diego Santilli met in Mar del Plata.
- Didn't the campaign in Together for Change start too early?
- No, I think it's normal.
We are the only coalition that has a financial program and communicates it, with variables foreseen in the exchange rate, in the macroeconomic and productive objectives.
No force, besides ours, speaks of a country project, with differences and coincidences among which we are part, but we are building it.
- Do you think that the PRO candidates are better known and that the UCR runs the risk of being accompanied again, as in 2015?
We are not at risk of that happening again.
In the management of Cambiemos he had to lead the PRO, and that cannot happen again.
That's why I think cross formulas are going to be a good system.
Likewise, up to now, none of the candidates are "wow", none breaks all the marks, so the end is open
.
- You were critical of Macri's administration. How is your current relationship with the sector of the PRO hawks?
- The PRO hawks do not understand the dialogue, they do not accept it, it does not enter their heads.
However, we are in a good moment, aware that the country's problem is very serious and that people are having a hard time.
Regarding Mauricio, I have not been critical of him, I was self-critical because I feel part of Together for Change.
And I have pointed out situations that I think we don't have to repeat, just that.
The governor of Jujuy Gerardo Morales. Photo: Guillermo Rodríguez Adami.
- Is there no room to negotiate the entry of Javier Milei to Together for Change?
- Milei is there for the worst caste to continue governing, which is Kirchnerism, he is aware of that.
Cristina must have a picture of Milei, for her he is a saint to whom she lights candles every day.
The Milei thing is an electoral farce, a fraud.
- Are you surprised by the government's attack on the Court?
- The truth is that no, because it is not the first time that the Government attacks the Court.
He has been putting pressure on the Justice since he took power, to consolidate a model of impunity that in this time has been falling.
He first pointed to the sentence against Cristina Kirchner, but he also did so at the time for the conviction of Milagro Sala and now with the ruling in which he defined that the Nation must transfer more resources to the city of Buenos Aires.
It seems very serious to me to listen to the President and many governors who are not going to abide by judicial rulings.
- Are you afraid that the impeachment request will end up advancing in the commission?
- Even if it advances in commission, it will not prosper later because they need two thirds of the votes and they don't have it.
I believe that what they are looking for is a stage within Congress to seat the judges of the Court to give explanations, an absolute excess that led to our decision from Together for Change that, as long as this attack on Justice does not cease, we will not We are not going to authorize any legislative project.
- Do you agree with Macri that Alberto Fernández's is the "worst government of all time"?
I fully agree with what you say.
They are sinking the ship, increasing the deficit in public companies and in the energy sector and the only thing that worries them is the judicial agenda of the vice president, more than that of the people.
- Can Alberto Fernández be a candidate for re-election?
- He thinks he's leading an epic, so it may be.
You have to be very cheeky to believe and say that.
- And Cristina Kirchner, is she going to play?
- I don't know what you are going to do, but I think you would have to wait for all the legal cases against you to be resolved.
We are witnesses of how they flipped bags with José López, of how Milagro Sala stole in Jujuy, of the Lázaro Báez, Ricardo Jaime, Julio De Vido and Amado Boudou who were part of a huge matrix of corruption.
Kirchnerism made us and makes us lose many opportunities for development.
- As which?
- Lithium is the best example of how you can grow.
In the last meeting we had with authorities from Catamarca and Salta and businessmen, we have taken a step forward and managed to keep lithium in Argentina for industrialization.
And it was not done through an imposition, but because the companies are aware of the importance it has and that it is a business in which not everything produced can go outside the country.
