"For the next stage we need everyone." Those around him say that Sergio Massa lowers this concept long before his pre-candidacy for President was defined. The phrase was also part of the repertoire of the economy minister in the first Cabinet meeting of which he participated this Wednesday in which he asked to "end the internal ones" in the ruling party.
With this same premise, he received Daniel Scioli, one of his main adversaries in the last decade, with whom he had a gesture: he went down to the esplanade of the Economy Ministry to receive him and together they went to the fifth floor, where they met for an hour.
It was a very different scene from the one Massa had generated when he took office at the end of July last year and left him alone at the press conference in which Scioli had to explain his departure from Productive Development,the portfolio that precisely absorbed the Tigrense.
Massa went out to meet Scioli at the door of the Ministry of Economy. Photo: Luciano Thieberger
In Economy they do not deny the rivalry that Massa starred in the last decade with Scioli, a tension that was reflected until hours before the closing of lists. But they say that "it is something that is part of the past." "Sergio proposes to everyone to look forward and move forward to consolidate unity," sources familiar with the meeting with the ambassador in Brazil point out in his environment.
Massa, say those who heard him in the last hours, lowers line to his troops of "not falling into triumphalism" after the electoral closure that benefited him and asks to take care of "the harmony of the front". In Creole: that its leaders, emboldened by their pre-candidacy, do not run over other sectors of Union for the Fatherland.
Something similar to what, as Clarín told days ago, raised his partner and head of AySA, Malena Galmarini, when in an internal chat of the Frente Renovador he asked for "humility" and "generosity".
Cristina Kirchner with Daniel Scioli in the Senate on Wednesday.
"Our only rivals are the opponents who want to take away rights," is one of Massa's messages to the referents of his space. This includes, from now on, Scioli. And also to Victoria Tolosa Paz and Santiago Cafiero, the two Albertistas on the ballots of Deputies, to whom before rumors that circulated, Massa took care of calling them to convey that he did not want them to leave their places on the ballot. "When we say we need everyone, it's everyone," says a massista of the first hour aware of these contacts.
There is an exception in this harmonious climate that he intends to sow: the mayor of Tigre, Julio Zamora, who linked the minister with an alleged "pressure so that he is not a candidate" in order to favor the pretensions of Galmarini, pre-candidate in the district.
"He will never let go, it is a separate case," admit those close to Massa, who considered it a betrayal that the mayor kept the district he won from his hand.
Massa's idea of summoning Scioli to the ministry was discussed with Cristina Kirchner, who showed her "respect" for the ambassador's gesture in closing the lists and called him to her office. On Wednesday they met in Congress and she anticipated in the networks that Scioli and Massa were going to meet this Thursday.
According to sources on both sides, Massa did not make any offer to Scioli in case he wins the election: it is also unclear whether he will remain in the embassy in Brazil. "This is not the time to talk about charges. We have to work so that Peronism continues to govern, then we will see," they said from a sector.
Sergio Massa with Eduardo "Wado" de Pedro, whom he dropped as a candidate.
Massa's effort to turn off the internal noise is also explained in the mirror with the situation that Together for Change is going through, where Horacio Rodríguez Larreta and Patricia Bullrich embarked on a new dispute after the head of the Buenos Aires Government said that the model proposed by the former minister is "what (Mauricio) Macri tried" and "failed".
In the last hours, part of the communication team of the ruling party was in charge of viralizing the statements of both leaders of JxC to amplify the confrontation in the media.
From the massismo, after securing the support of Cristina Kirchner and calming the discomfort that was noticed in La Cámpora after the decline of the candidacy of Eduardo "Wado" de Pedro, they explained that an axis in the face of the PASO will be to ponder "the cordiality of unity, which includes politicians, trade unionists and businessmen, versus the internal fights of the opposition."
"Peronism is getting sorted. And this makes us very competitive for the election, as the first polls show after the announcement of the formula, "they reinforce.
Massa-Scioli meeting at the Ministry of Economy. Photo: Luciano Thieberger.