Breakdown (English Version)

What ended up happening this week was the breakdown of the unity of the front that catapulted Alberto Fernández to the Presidency of Argentina.

We will probably never see again a photo like the one from last Sunday night, when the main responsible figures in the government stood around the President like forming a barrier against a free kick in football.

Versions are numerous and vary depending on the sources, but all agree that supporters of Cristina Kirchner and Kirchenerists called for changes in policies and some ministers, and that Fernández understood that surrender to changes meant starting a new stage of his Government; beheaded, not to say from a total misgovernment.

After first hours of uncertainty and confusing signals from everywhere, support from Peronists began to arrive. Governors, mayors, and trade unionists came to save Private Ryan. What could be publicly noticed was something not too vehement, but perhaps there were messages in favor of starting a new stage of government, this time without the protectorate of the Vice President. It could have been the case that those relegated from the lists that were rejected on Sunday have asked for other heads, which are not - at least, not only - those of the ministers. Otherwise, it is unthinkable that the head of the Administration could have dreamed of going ahead with a Congress on a war footing.

It is evident that Cristina Fernández de Kirchner perceived that, without changes in the cabinet and in the economic policy, the result in November could deepen, with a chaotic effect on governance, which would mean for her an assured defeat by 2023 and a noticeable increase in the uncertainty of its family fortune. She couldn’t admit that and she reacted as she could. But the meddling was so rude that what firstly seemed like a call for a change in policy, it plainly turned out to be an extortive approach.

At that moment they all began to recalculate. The Vice President's call to Martín Guzmán to explain that she had not asked for his resignation is an obvious example of this. Sergio Massa, who appeared as the Kirchner battering ram to intervene in the cabinet, ended up acting as a mediator in the conflict and even disavowing his friend Máximo Kirchner.

Nor is it clear what those demanding changes are asking for. To say the least, no one believes that the government can advance without an agreement with the International Monetary Fund, nor that the fiscal deficit can be deepened. They know people voted tired of broken promises and that it will take eloquent gestures to get them to believe again, not increases in their income that are quickly liquefied. They might be asking for a more misleading speech. The important thing is that, during the crisis, the Vice President let third parties know that there were not many figures other than Massa to lead the replacement, due to his good relationship with the United States and that no one has to be confused about what it had to be done with the economy.

What is clearer now is that there was a ministerial change decided and that everyone believed that it should take place after the general elections, until the unexpected failure of the PASO appeared. Anxiety did the rest. 

It seems that there will be changes. But the President has judged that these cannot be done now. This will surely compromise the November result even more, something that does not seem he cares of.

It also seems that this renewal will be led by Massa. The man from Tigre has no alternative but to hold on to some quota of power after losing in his district, just when he had managed to regain it.

The names are uncertain; both those who would enter could quote Carlos Reutemann when he said he saw "ugly things", and those who leave because there are relationships that will not be easily rebuilt.

Incidentally, there were resignations of ministers who seemed to have never assumed at all.

Sending the 2022 budget will be a litmus test. It would be normal for it to be approved. Except for the fact that there could be wounds which haven’t been healed.

La frase

El personaje Monsignor Vicente Fernández When the crisis broke out, the memes exploded. In one of these there was a chat which was abandoned by Cristina Fernández, her son Máximo Kirchner, Wado de Pedro, Sergio Massa… and Pope Francis. After 24 hours, that seemed to come true when the Archbishop of La Plata, Víctor “Tucho” Fernández, sent a stern opinion column to the newspaper La Nación for its publication. It is a short and direct column, in which he accuses the President of neglecting the true needs of people.