"If Alberto insists on the PASO plan, Sergio leaves," they say in Massa's entourage.
"They left mouth, I'm not leaving," Massa clarifies.
In any case, his "exit" is already an issue. The few loyalists left to Alberto Fernández qualify as "extortion" the move to that issue that everyone talks about but, according to its protagonist, never existed.
Cristina had, this week, meetings with the three candidates who will be on the ballot (although no one knows in what order): Kicillof, Wado de Pedro and Massa. He met with him on Monday to tell him how he sees the second semester. Thus, the Minister of Economy won the battle with Wado, who welcomed a PASO.
Then Cristina, in tandem with Massa, began an operation to alienate Peronism: she managed to get 13 governors to sign a statement in favor of the single list. Massa tried to convince the President but failed. They met alone at the Casa Rosada on Wednesday and continued Friday with a video call.
"The dangers are the same. If they want, they will make us a currency run," Alberto told him against the idea that without a single list the economy enters a greater risk than the current one.
This Saturday, Massa will make a show of strength: he will be the closing speaker of the party congress of the Frente Renovar, at the DirecTV Arena in Tortuguitas, with capacity for 12 thousand people. The slogan will be #CreoenArgentina, a hashtag that has been used in the networks and is not part of the official communication of the government. While Massa privately denies any electoral intentions, his team continues to run as if it were campaigning.
"Sergio is fed up because there is no margin for an intern. On the Monday after the election when the markets open, we cannot be third," a close associate of the minister told Clarín.
"If Alberto doesn't mind this exploding, that's fine, but don't count on Massa."
Among the veiled threats there is also that Cristina and Massa break with Alberto and form an electoral seal with another name. Close to Massa they minimize it.
Elsewhere in Gotham City, Daniel Scioli opened his campaign bunker two blocks from the Casa Rosada. He received the support of Pablo Moyano and continued with his round of events in Capital and the Conurbano.
In a new campaign spot he compares Argentina to the "raging sea" in which he lost his arm and appears in his boat at full speed. Alberto, meanwhile, assured Massa that he is not the one who controls Scioli, although Santiago Cafiero and Victoria Tolosa Paz are his biggest promoters.
The negotiation with the Fund is slower and more stalled than the minister expected. The White House's management of a "hyper-lax agreement" does not appear. This week the State Department probed in Buenos Aires what was the risk of a crisis. Those consulted were left with the impression that Janet Yellen's office really wanted to know what could happen if the fresh silver overtake does not happen.
In Washington, a source familiar with the negotiations told Clarín: "Argentina has many possibilities of achieving a modification of the goals included in the agreement with the Fund to make them as flexible as necessary to make them achievable. But it has little chance of getting the advance of the disbursements planned for the rest of the year and zero chances of obtaining fresh silver and with free availability. "
Massa is now analyzing a risky move: pay the next maturities for US $ 700 million and 1,300 million on June 21 and 22 with his own resources, taking advantage of the minimum room for maneuver that gave him the 5,000 million yuan he got in China. We have long scratched from the bottom of the jar.
"The Fund doubts about the agreement because it does not know who the candidate is and it does not know who the economy minister will be after the lists are formed. The confidence that Argentina inspires to fulfill its commitments depends on those names," one of the Argentine negotiators told this newspaper.
See also
