The delays in the agreement with the International Monetary Fund threaten to complicate the campaign of Sergio Massa, who in his dual role as minister-candidate must double his time and permanently reschedule activities. A witness case was the trip of the Tigrean to Washington, planned in principle for Thursday of this week but finally postponed by the comings and goings in the negotiations, which had put a brake on those traveled by the Conurbano, where he seeks to consolidate the hard Kirchner vote.
But it is clear that the uncertainty surrounding an agreement with the IMF not only impacts from logistical issues: its correlation in the shortage of dollars translates into a climate of exchange rate tension and instability that candidate Massa needed to avoid; and at the same time because it keeps on the agenda the internal debate on the renegotiation of the debt that crosses Union for the Fatherland since Alberto Fernández took office and that had La Cámpora at the forefront of the questions.
Massa took advantage of the end of the week to recover part of the time lost in proselytizing matters and on Friday he drew two tours in electoral key, with the axis placed in the confrontation with the opposition for the model of country that he proclaims, a discursive line with which he avoids referring to the problems of the present that the economy faces and that, As the head of the area, it is difficult for him to explain. "We believe in work as the instrument of upward social mobility and the rest of the political forces propose that the salary is the cost of Argentina. For me they are people, not numbers," Massa said during a tour of a textile factory in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Villa Soldati, where he appeared with the UP pre-candidate for the head of the Buenos Aires Government, Leandro Santoro.
In the afternoon, he reinforced the confrontation: "In the face of those who call to divide, we have to continue in the idea of adding," said the Tigrense, in an act in the Industrial Park of Florencio Varela in which he received strong support from Axel Kicillof to his strategy to retain the K vote. "Massa is putting everything to get us out of the mess in which those who now think put us," highlighted the governor of Buenos Aires, in a dart for elevation to Together for Change but also internally by former Economy Minister Martin Guzman. "They come to take away our rights," both agreed.
In that sense, the rivals chosen by Massa are Patricia Bullrich and Javier Milei, who in his opinion represent the polar opposites of the ruling party. "The axis is to defend the future of the homeland, the defense of the national and the role of the State against those who talk about privatizing Aerolineas Argentinas. The defense of the public university over those who want to tariff it, "they review from Massa's environment. It is, although in the ruling party they deny the term, a reissue of the campaign of fear that in 2015 Kirchnerism tried unsuccessfully against Mauricio Macri. "There is not much more to say," says a massista of the first hour who says he is convinced that "there is an opportunity in the runoff because on the opposite sidewalk they are worse."
In the Economy Ministry, pending progress in the negotiations being carried out by Finance Secretary Raul Rigo and his chief adviser, Leonardo Madcur, they anticipate that Massa plans to travel to Santiago del Estero next Monday. The funny thing is that there are still no certainties regarding the weekend. "Everything is open, we depend on what happens in Washington," they say. "We are fine, we are optimistic," they repeat. In any case, it is not clear that this trip will materialize, even before an agreement: due to the electoral ban that prevents him from making announcements that tend to capture the vote, there are those who advise him not to get involved despite his status as minister.
Although the tension in the negotiation with the IMF serves to reinforce Massa that he is facing a tough negotiation, in line with the warning he made days ago, when he pointed out that "Argentina's development cannot be tied to the Excel board of a bureaucrat", generates concern in the UxP campaign bunker, where they know that without dollars there is no electoral future possible due to exchange rate volatility. "Without an agreement there are no dollars. You have to agree yes or yes, another week of the blue so it would complicate us a lot. It would be lethal," they remark.