"They have fed me up with the operations. I'm rotten
." Sergio Massa did not get over the anger even when Alberto Fernández told him that he was thinking of throwing out Antonio Aracre. encourage a new economic program. He blamed him for putting his system of power in check and dragging the Government into a currency run. In the one-on-one talk he had with the President, Massa gave him an account of the damage the Executive had suffered in the markets due to Aracre's supposed maneuver. Fernández listened to him and said nothing to him, but when he left the conversation and commented on it to his small table, the response from those around him was lapidary: "Sergio no longer knows who to
blame blame".
Two days after leaving Aracre, one of those men who spends long hours at the Olivos Residence, recalled the scene and wrote on WhatsApp:
"Blue 442. It's time to take over before we run out of officials." .
Massa gets furious at these kinds of versions and always ups the ante.
“Aracre lasted me twelve hours.
I'll take the next one in less or I'm the one who leaves
, "she said in a moment of anger.
They were not and are not easy days for the Tigrense and his team.
Massa seems to stir a dangerous ghost:
it's me or chaos.
Cristina talks to him every day.
She looks overwhelmed, with a face similar to the one she experienced when the ministry was briefly in the hands of Silvina Batakis.
The numbers are scary because they get worse week by week and sometimes day by day.
It is worth stopping at the stage prior to the inauguration of the leader of the Renewal Front.
The blue dollar was at 239 pesos on July 1, 2022, before the resignation of Martín Guzmán.
It jumped to $314 throughout July, with a peak of $337. The week that increased the most in that month was 31 pesos.
Now he has increased 49 pesos in 23 days and, only this week, 42
.
That is, 12% rise in April.
There are still five business days left.
The jumps in the blue come from the hand of the permanent shake with the prices.
The record for March, with 7.7% inflation, which is part of a trend that has not stopped growing since December, makes the outlook bleaker for Massa, who is trying to become a presidential candidate.
He doesn't just want to be.
He hopes that they will put together an operative outcry
to make him a unique applicant.
Daniel Scioli is an obstacle.
He could resist and face it.
He is part of Massa's nightmare, who hates him.
At the IMF they seem restless.
March closed with a deficit of $258,000 million.
In the first quarter of the year, the primary deficit amounts to $690,000 million, that is, $250,000 million above the commitment assumed with the agency for this time of year, which was $440,000 million.
This is a 56% deviation from the agreed fiscal goal.
Massa prepares a new trip to Washington.
Cristina, who continues to think of the minister as a candidate, although with less and less enthusiasm, returned to seclusion.
She only left silence to clarify on Twitter that she never asked for a meeting with Laura Richardson, the head of the Southern Command.
She also did it to record a greeting to the people of Santiago who were participating in a PJ act in which they assumed local authorities.
Eduardo De Pedro, who seeks his electoral blessing, activated the speakerphone of his cell phone and attached it to the microphone so that the militants could hear his voice.
There were shouts and applause.
Wado smiled.
He could be smiling in another country or in another context.
A member of the Frente de Todos who still strives to preserve common sense compared the scene in Santiago del Estero with the inauguration of the Casa del Puente in Mar del Plata by Alberto Fernández.
That day, the president was humorous: "As Alterio said, damn it's worth being alive," he said.
After the inauguration, Alberto rushed back to Olivos.
He had decided to announce that he would withdraw from the race for re-election.
His determination had been made since his return from the United States -three weeks ago, when he met with Joe Biden- as Clarín recounted that weekend.
He had to rush it because La Cámpora and Axel Kicillof threatened him with splitting the election in the province of Buenos Aires and subjecting him to ridicule at the PJ Council meeting.
Gabriela Cerruti took charge of the recording so that the announcement would not leak.
The video was recorded at midnight and editing was finished at half past two in the morning.
Alberto wanted it to spread before the markets opened.
They published it at 9.53 on Friday.
He did not notify Cristina and Massa sent her a message a minute before his team clicked publish.
The minister was undergoing a medical examination when he received the message.
The relationship between Fernández and Ma-ssa goes from regular to bad.
Massa knows that Alberto
is critical of what he has done so far
and that on more than one occasion he highlighted Guzmán's work.
Many think like him.
Worse: there is no shortage of those who wonder if
it is not time to start looking for alternative names
, either because Massa leaves the ministry to be a candidate or because the crisis ends up devouring his figure.
Aracre said the same thing.
On Friday, April 14, when it became known that year-on-year inflation had climbed to 104.3%, the then head of Advisors wrote a message to Fernández and proposed
a future scenario of economic crash
.
He suggested urgently setting up a crisis committee and moving forward with a document, which he had already been preparing, with a series of measures.
"If we continue like this, before PASO we are going to find ourselves with an ugly surprise with inflation and with the dollar," he said.
The President responded immediately:
"Well, why don't you write something down and give me some ideas in writing?"
On Sunday, exactly one week ago, Alberto Fernández was resting in the Olivos gardens when he received a new message from the adviser.
"I have it.
I'm sending it to you so you can see it ”, and he sent a file to his cell phone with three pages.
"Come for lunch tomorrow and we'll move on," Alberto told him.
They met on Monday at the Casa Rosada, alone.
Aracre spoke of a
"giant lack of coordination"
between Massa and the president of the Central Bank, Miguel Ángel Pesce, for which he - he explained - billions of dollars a month in debt payments to companies go.
He asked that they both be quoted and that he and Agustín Rossi be added to talk about the document.
What did the text say?
That there is an exchange delay of 30% in the official dollar.
That a six-month freeze of all relative prices in the economy had to be promoted, adjusting salaries and pensions.
He complained that the Palacio de Hacienda had launched a 300-peso dollar for the countryside without first thinking of a more expensive dollar for imports from the same sector.
And it also proposed the payment of a fixed sum per month of 50,000 pesos for all workers who receive salaries below 150,000 pesos.
Alberto told him that it seemed good to him to discuss the document and he promised to set up the meeting.
But before he ordered her:
"Write to Marco Lavagna
. "
Aracre exchanged messages with the head of INDEC, and not only with him: he spoke with at least two other people from the economic team.
Simultaneously, he sent a message to Massa, who tried to be friendly, but the minister
gave him the go-ahead and never responded
.
At night, after saying goodbye to his daughter, who was going back to Sydney, Aracre sat in front of the television at home, surfed the channels and stopped at LN+.
He almost jumped out of the chair when he heard Carlos Pagni say that Aracre, who was him, was warming up to replace Massa.
The next day he returned to the Casa Rosada.
His phone had never received so many messages.
"What is this madness?"
he asked Fernández.
The first president, pressured by Massa and by the blue dollar, which was exhibiting a strong rise, did not have good news to give him.
Aracre tried to explain that he did not even have the journalist's phone number, but Alberto gave him no explanation:
"The spokeswoman told me that it was you who leaked everything
. "
Aracre left the Casa Rosada after a few minutes.
—Did you at least eat well at lunch with Alberto? His friends asked him, who suddenly saw his last name break into portals and become a trend on Twitter.
Aracre preferred to answer them humorously:
"Gluttony is a cardinal sin."