Agustín Rossi
knows the territory of the Chamber of Deputies like few others and for the presentation of his first government management report he appealed to a strong speech, almost of a campaign, which he crowned by accusing the rural leadership of having installed political violence in the country after the 2008 conflict. All this after reproaching the opposition for the lack of
a "forceful" condemnation of the assassination attempt against Cristina Kirchner
.
As established by the Constitution, the Chief of Staff appeared this Wednesday in Deputies to render accounts and give details of the national government's policy.
In this scenario, he warned that Argentina lives with four crises:
the pandemic, the war due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the drought and the indebtedness with the International Monetary Fund
(IMF), but he tried unsuccessfully to avoid the issue of inflation and the exchange of bonds.
First, he highlighted the drop in unemployment, the growth of foreign investment and the 5,000 public works of the Government.
He defended the nationalization of YPF as well as the role of Aerolíneas Argentinas.
But one of the moments of greatest tension occurred when Rossi brought the attack suffered by Cristina Kirchner to the venue last year.
Exhibition of Agustín Rossi in Deputies, this Wednesday.
Photo Lucia Merle.
"Unfortunately, last year political violence returned to Argentina," started the chief of staff, referring to the attack that the vice president suffered in September 2022, when a young man fired twice at the vice president's head.
Rossi, who presided over the pro-government block in Deputies in different administrations during Kirchnerism, did not let the opposition representatives take a breath to reproach them:
"I would have deserved a more forceful response from the entire political leadership
. "
Hernán Lombardi
(PRO) jumped from his bench and questioned the coordinating minister, but Rossi immediately returned:
"We are still waiting for the sentence of the president of your party"
in reference to the silence of Patricia Bullrich, while the opposition deputy said that he was lying.
"I'm not lying, I'm telling the truth", he completed himself.
But far from closing the discussion on that claim in defense of the vice president, the chief of staff continued with his proselytizing offensive and pointed out to the deputies that "political violence in Argentina began long before" the attack on the vice president.
"I don't want to bring up past discussions, but in 2008 when the conflict with the agricultural sector began, political violence began in Argentina
," said the official, adding: "That was the first time I saw a sign that said 'mare', referring to Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner".
The phrase unleashed the anger of the opposition and Rossi gloated saying "how I put them".
He also pointed to the libertarians when he stated that "right-wing extremism exists in Argentina."
"What happened with Cristina Kirchner is not the product of chance. If you stay with that, you are wrong. For it to have existed, there was a hate speech campaign before," he explained.
At the time of the questions,
José Luis Espert
was the one who raised the issue of inflation to Rossi when, after describing it as "cheeky", the official pointed out that the rise in prices "eats the wages of the workers, the retirees are they die of hunger, poverty explodes." "They never insulted me as much as you, you have a merit. It
must be your fascistoid way of expressing yourself
," replied the coordinating minister.
Closed defense of the DNU
But it was in the face of the insistent claims of the opposition that the Chief of Staff defended the DNU that promotes the exchange of ANSeS bonds and on this point he remarked that it is "another tool to combat inflation
.
"
He explained that the Government's intention is to "operate" on the cash market with liquidity and the blue dollar so that "the gap does not widen much and not have a greater inflationary intention."
And he went further because he guaranteed that the measure carried out by Minister Sergio Massa will allow the Sustainability Guarantee Fund to obtain "greater profitability."
However, Ricardo López Murphy was one of the lawmakers who questioned the swap plan.
"For several years they said they want to pesify the debt and what they are doing is
issuing dollarized debt at extravagant, insane rates
," he reproached him.
In one of his last interventions, Rossi also avoided answering about the vice president's retirement, arguing that it is linked to the salaries of Supreme Court judges.
"We do not want to reveal that amount, do you not want us to make enemies with the Court for a situation of these characteristics?" She said with an ironic tone, who clarified that Cristina Kirchner receives a pension and retirement.
At the closing of the briefing,
Mario Negri
appealed to irony to disqualify the Chief of Staff's speech by pointing out that he gave a "post-truth masterclass."
"He appealed to the emotionality to convince his own, that's why they applauded him. But the reality is what we are describing," he added.
Cristian Ritondo.
head of the PRO block.
Cristian Ritondo
, meanwhile, said that the ruling party lives far from reality, more precisely in "
Albertolandia
".
"We have it reflected from the last time the President came when he said that Argentina was the energy of the world and in half an hour Argentina was without light," he stated.
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