The escalation of inflation is also having a strong impact on the budget that the Government allocates to the payment of social plans. At the end of the first quarter, spending on the two main assistance programs increased by 33%, just above the rise in prices, but far from being able to guarantee the annual goal of 60% set by Economy Minister Sergio Massa.
Exactly $ 429,306 million were turned to the coffers of the Empower Work and the Food Card as of April 30, the equivalent of $ 3,577 million per day. These are the two central assistance funds in the public administration, which control piqueteros allied to the Government and K organizations such as La Cámpora.
Spending has been intensifying since January, when daily transfers were $2.690 billion. In February the threshold of $ 3,000 million was passed, in March they climbed to $ 3,400 million and in April it approached $ 3,600 million. In four months, it is a rise of 33%. When the inflation data for April is known, next Friday, the quarterly balance will be similar to that data.
At this rate of transfer outlay, the annual budget of $ 1.03 trillion will be exhausted before the general elections on October 22, forcing the Executive to reallocate funds in the middle of the campaign. It has already done so in the 2021 elections, when it had to reschedule the entire game in August, a month before the PASO.
The Evita, on both sides of the counter
From the zero minute of Alberto Fernández's administration, the most important state fund in terms of social assistance was managed by a leader aligned with President Alberto Fernández as Emilio Pérsico. Secretary of Social Economy and leader of the Evita Movement, he became on both sides of the counter, paying for the plans and receiving a high percentage of them.
The Empower Work has an annual budget of $ 590,896 million, of which $ 237,752 million have already been used, 40% of the total and the equivalent of $ 1,982 million per day. From there, assistance is covered to more than 1.3 million beneficiaries, who in exchange must fulfill a work of four hours per day, from Monday to Friday, which most do not complete.
Fernando "Chino" Navarro and Emilio Pérsico, the top leaders of the Evita Movement
The credit of the Empower Work is half Minimum Living Wage and Mobile, today located that is, about $ 40,160 per month. That money is handled as intermediaries by social organizations, which from there transfer the resources to each beneficiary. Last year it was learned that the Polo Obrero, for example, will charge a 2% cachet to each of its 60,000 members who receive the plan. That money ends up being used to finance the cuts and pickets he carries out.
Social Development Minister Victoria Tolosa Paz has been trying to adjust the transfer system since the beginning of the year. It lowered the number of beneficiaries receiving the plan and prevented the accumulation of the collection of social programs, such as Empowering Work and Nexus. However, it was not enough to control in detail how it is paid and who receives the resources.
La Cámpora, in charge of the Food Card
Decisive during the pandemic, the Food Card has been losing weight with respect to the Empowering Work in terms of sending resources in recent years. Today it has funds for $ 442,755 million to cover food assistance during 2023.
At the end of the first quarter, the Food Policies program received $ 191,554 million, exactly $ 1,596 million per day, and 43% of the total resources planned, which also following this pace of execution, should be reinforced in October, before the presidential elections.
The Food Card, which receives periodic adjustments from the State in its amounts, reaches 1.4 million beneficiaries, equivalent to around four million people in which it ends up impacting. Unlike what happens with the Empowering Work, the traceability of the sending of its funds is clearer, since it is accompanied by the ANSeS, in line with the register of people who receive the Universal Child Allowance.
It is a box that manages La Cámpora, also since the beginning of the management. It is in charge of Laura Valeria Alonso, Secretary of Social Inclusion, who responds politically to Máximo Kirchner and the "crow" Andrés Larroque. The relationship between Evita and La Cámpora for the management of these resources is tense, as with most of the social movements that coexist in Social Development.
Laura Valeria Alonso, Secretary of Social Inclusion, with the mayor of Quilmes Mayra Mendoza. Both of the group La Cámpora.
The distribution of piquetero power in the ministry
Social Development is a ministry divided by social organizations related to Kirchnerism, since before Tolosa Paz assumes office, in October. Already in the previous efforts of Daniel Arroyo and Juan Zabaleta, the struggle for territorial power was a constant.
With the Evita Movement and La Cámpora facing each other for some time in the midst of the struggle between Alberto Fernández and Cristina Kirchner, other social referents also have internal firepower, such as Juan Grabois, through leaders who respond to him such as Ramona Fernanda Miño, the Secretary of Socio-Urban Integration.
Last year, Grabois lost one of his soldiers, fired by Pérsico after internal differences: it was Rafael Klejzer, of the Dignity Movement, who was national director of Integrative Policies and already outside the Government is the one who is leading piqueteros operations of price controls in supermarkets.
There are also loyalists of Pérsico and Alberto Fernández, such as Daniel Menéndez, of Somos Barrios de Pie, who serves as undersecretary of integration and training policies, and was one of the initial promoters of price controls, in addition to having motorized a march against the countryside towards La Rural that finally ended up taking place at the gates of Congress.
In March, Clarín announced a series of discretionary transfers that were sent to Social Development in 2022, for $ 14,000 million, among which stand out remittances to social organizations that respond politically to Pérsico, Esteban Castro, Grabois, Klejzer and Menéndez.
See also
