Sergio Massa had planned to stay in Panama until Monday, but decided to anticipate his return with the mission of taking charge of
the intervention that Edesur ordered
after weeks of power outages.
The Minister of Economy had been analyzing the measure but decided to move the cards knowing that the Government's inaction in the face of the company's breaches began to erode his management.
From Central America, Massa also
returned angry with the President's entourage
, to which he attributes questions that are poured out on him in the media, especially since it was known that
the inflation rate for February was 6.6 percent,
very far from the promise he made in November.
Massa, who, like the head of state, usually has a fluid relationship with journalists, chose not to agitate through the media until he spoke with Fernández.
The telephone conversation, as Infobae recounted and
Clarín
was able to reconstruct , took place as soon as the minister arrived at Ezeiza.
The President was taken by surprise, especially by the tone he used to discharge him.
In that call, which did not serve to relax but rather as a warning, there was no room for Massa to advance on the detail of the
Edesur intervention
that he had arranged with the Secretary of Energy, Flavia Royón, the Legal and Administrative Secretary of Finance, Ricardo Casal , and the ENRE controller, Walter Martello
.
"It was his decision, but he has nothing to consult because it is his area,"
confided a high-ranking source from the presidential environment.
He tried to play down the drama, but revealed an aspect that is symptomatic
of the bad moment that the relationship between the President and the minister is going through.
A decision of this magnitude in another context would have warranted the leadership of the Frente de Todos sitting at the same table to define the strategy.
"Sergio has absolute independence to make the decisions he considers, that was the agreement and nobody questioned it," the same source added.
In Casa Rosada, in recent days he was convinced that some definition had to be adopted regarding the power outages and the lack of responses from Edesur.
But they warned about the need to draw up a process "as neat as possible" to avoid subsequent claims from the Italian ENEL.
Clarín
consulted the Ministry of Economy about it, where they avoided continuing with the controversy: "We are not going to comment, we only talk about the management."
A fact that supports the version that the President was not consulted is the appointment of the former Minister of Territorial Development and Habitat and current mayor of Avellaneda, Jorge Ferraresi, who in the last hours
was
very critical of Alberto F. and praised Massa for assume "
one day before the government leaves by helicopter
."
Ferraresi, who while he was minister and still had some expectation that the management would be redirected did not deny his closeness to Alberto F. and even acted as a mediator with the Ks, today he returns to play in tune with the interests
of Cristina Kirchner.
Despite this, he was not objected to by the Casa Rosada once his appointment was made known.
"He is an engineer, he knows the subject and has an internal consensus," summarized before this newspaper a senior official who is not unaware of the distance that the mayor has with the head of state.
In the presidential environment they still do not understand the reason for Massa's anger.
They deny being behind the criticism of the minister and contrast it with some symptoms of impatience that are beginning to be glimpsed from Kirchnerism.
"It was not Alberto nor were we the ones who criticized the renegotiation with the International Monetary Fund, it was La Cámpora.
We did not say that with this inflation 'it is impossible to win the election'. It was (Rodolfo) Tailhade
," they stated.
Strictly speaking, the former Minister of Economy, Martín Guzmán, Alberto's protégé until he slammed the door without warning, was not critical of his successor in his reappearance in the media either.
Massa, for now, will prevent the discussion from escalating further.
He already made it clear in that call that he does not intend to confront the media but that he is not going to let "the machos of the off" grind him down.
"Everything he had to say, he said it. There is no more than that," added a source who has known the Tigrense for decades.
look too
Controversy over the double position of Jorge Ferraresi: he will continue as mayor while Edesur's intervention lasts
Edesur, power outages and complaints: How it was conceived and what the intervention means
