Peronism resettles itself in the plains. The PJ governors are already meeting at the Buenos Aires headquarters of Banco Provincia to analyze the reduction of the co-participation and propose a common position to negotiate with Javier Milei. After an hour-long conversation alone, Guillermo Francos, the future Minister of the Interior of the libertarian administration, joined the meeting.
On the 19th floor, where Axel Kicillof has his offices and where he met alone with Francos on Friday, the governor of Buenos Aires – who appears as a primus interpares – received his counterparts from 10 provinces and the Minister of the Interior Eduardo de Pedro, who in the afternoon will receive his successor at Casa Rosada. who has already held face-to-face and telephone talks with several provincial leaders. Milei's political minister, who knows the bank's headquarters because he worked as an official for Daniel Scioli, walked in without making any statements.
The governors of La Rioja, Ricardo Quintela; Santiago del Estero, Gerardo Zamora; Tierra del Fuego, Gustavo Melella; Misiones, Oscar Herrera Ahuad (representing his successor Hugo Passalcqua); Tucumán, Osvaldo Jaldo. Catamarca, Raúl Jalil; Formosa, Gildo Insfrán; La Pampa, Sergio Ziliotto.
Also present were the provincial governors who will leave power on December 10: Gustavo Bordet, from Entre Ríos; Jorge Capitanich, from Chaco; Sergio Uñac, from San Juan; and Alicia Kirchner, from Santa Cruz. All of them, with the exception of the Chaco native, will occupy seats in Congress.
Gustavo Sáenz, one of those who was alone with Francos, hit the free-kick. In Peronism, there are voices that point out that Massa's historic ally is flirting with getting closer to Milei's administration. Neither was Alberto Rodríguez Saá, from San Luis, who in 12 days will be governed by Claudio Poggi, of JxC. Unlike the previous meetings, this time the UxP allies were not there. Neither Alberto Weretilneck, from Río Negro, nor Rolando Figueroa, from Neuquén, participated. On the other hand, the mayor of La Matanza – "the fifth province" – Fernando Espinoza, was there, a day after Kicillof met with the municipal leaders of the PJ to close ranks and ask for a loan to guarantee the payment to state workers. .
Debate over the Christmas bonus
While several of the opposition governors announced that they will not be able to pay the half-year-end bonus, Kicillof and the provincial executives of Peronism differentiated themselves and maintained that they already have the resources assured.
Bordet, from Entre Ríos, contradicted his successor Rogelio Frigerio and stated that his administration already has the resources to pay the November salaries and the complementary annual salary.
"We are going to pay the Christmas bonus with our own funds. We are concerned about partnership. We have a decrease because of Earnings. We've raised it with Massa. Public works are what we are most concerned about. At least we want to finish the ones that are advanced. In La Rioja we have 5600,<> workers who could lose their jobs," said Rioja Governor Ricardo Quintela, who had threatened to resign if Milei was elected.
After winning the elections, the libertarian leader assured that there will be no more public works.
The leaders of the North, who are already working on the assembly of their own bloc in Congress, were the first to release a statement to pressure Alberto Fernández and the frustrated official candidate and Minister of Economy Sergio Massa, to compensate the provinces for the reduction of the co-participation that the recent reform of the income tax that accompanied the campaign means. The governors of Patagonia also joined the demand.
After Massa's victory in the general elections, the governors had made a demonstration of support for the economy minister in the Federal Investment Council. With the defeat consummated and far from the leader of the FR, this time the host was Kicillof.