Last Monday, before he was attacked by two bus drivers who were protesting the murder of his colleague Daniel Barrientos,
Sergio Berni
once again
suggested that he could be a candidate
.
The beating -with a skull fracture included- did not discourage the Buenos Aires Minister of Security.
Although he maintained that he does not think of resigning, a possible
candidacy at the national, provincial or municipal level
- which will depend on the official board - would also mean a
hasty departure from Axel Kicillof's Cabinet
.
December 10 is too far away to determine if Berni will accompany the governor until the end of the term.
The Buenos Aires minister
does not rule out putting on the candidate's suit in June
.
"He wants to be in
a place where he can do more things for Security than in the ministry
," reflected the leaders who know him best.
That place can hardly be the municipality of Zárate, hometown of the official.
The Buenos Aires Minister of Security, Sergio Berni cornered by protesters in La Matanza.
Photo: Maxi Failla
The
minister's
detractors
multiply
.
In October, after the repression of the Buenos Aires that ended with one death and the suspension of the match between Boca and Gimnasia in La Plata, one of the mayors who have been in tension with the doctor and the military since the beginning of the mandate was ironic about the unwavering fidelity of Berni to the governor.
"He is the only official who
says that his political boss is Kicillof
," he ironized.
On that occasion, the voices calling for the minister's departure
were raised again
, but Berni remained.
Today the link between the provincial president and his minister is not going through the best moment.
Berni repeats that the
only political boss
he ever had was
Néstor Kirchner
.
The minister
knows
Kicillof's lightning rod to stop the growing claim for insecurity in the suburbs, criticism from the opposition and weighty allies in the Frente de Todos.
The governor
did not publicly support the minister
for the criticized raid to arrest the bus drivers Jorge Oscar Galiano and Jorge Ezequiel Zerda who beat him.
He did not agree - like La Cámpora - to Cristina Kirchner's tweet, which compared the operation with the magnitude that an arrest of a drug trafficker in her bunker would have deserved.
Only before the journalistic request, from the governor's environment
they defended the search protocol
, but they clarified that the Internal Affairs division of Buenos Aires investigates ex officio if there was any excess.
At the Instituto Patria they confirmed that CFK's message had no recipient other than the Minister of Security.
Sergio Berni is rescued by the City Police after being attacked with punches and stones by colleagues of the murdered bus driver.
Photo: Maxi Failla
Confronted with Máximo Kirchner
and distanced from the Vice President, Berni also bears the enmity of the Peronist mayors and the Casa Rosada.
His national peer,
Aníbal Fernández,
called him nine times, as he himself publicly recounted.
Berni found out after leaving the CT scanner and called him back.
The talk was personal, far from management.
“
Everything is fine with Aníbal
”, the minister points out to his close friends at this time.
Sergio Berni, attacked with blows and stones at the bus stop in General Paz.
Photo: Maxi Failla.
Some of Fernández's collaborators interpreted the telephone approach as the
possible start of a truce
after the short circuits between the Nation and the Province that had the minister as the protagonist, who did not hesitate to affirm 4 months after the PASO that the governor "does not know
the suburban
".
The illusion did not last.
This Saturday Fernández once again criticized Andrés Larroque and Eduardo de Pedro for not supporting the President's candidacy.
"All those who never worked or spent their time
throwing stones
from the other sidewalk,
like 'Cuervo' or 'Wado,'
should have accompanied them," he said in statements to AM 990.
In this context, it seems unlikely that Kicillof will have delegates at the next meeting of the
Conurbano Unified Command
that coordinates the Ministry of National Security with the mayors and secretaries of the municipal area.
After Wednesday's meeting with municipal representatives from the North and Southwest of the GBA, this Tuesday will be the second turn of the mayors of the Northwest and of
Julio Garro
from La Plata and the opposition .
Governor Carlos Bianco
's chief adviser
questioned in the media the absence of provincial officials in those meetings.
In the Government they answered that the table with mayors was an agreement between Fernández and Bianco's successor in the Cabinet headquarters,
Martín Insaurralde
.
Berni points out that the federal forces that Kicillof claims have still not reached Greater Buenos Aires.
From the Government they disseminate photos and data of the deployment of gendarmes in groups of the Conurbano.
Meanwhile, this Friday, the Buenos Aires security minister sent troops from the Buenos Aires
Tactical Operations Unit
(UTOI) to control passengers in La Matanza buses.
It is the same body that carried out the questioned search against the bus drivers.
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