Wednesday marks three months since Alberto Fernández and Cristina Kirchner last spoke. It was on March 1 at the opening of the legislative sessions. “we will meet once more”, predicted the President this week at the PJ headquarters in Buenos Aires. That reunion might have taken place yesterday at the Congress of the Chaco Front for All, but only Fernández attended. The versions regarding a possible participation of the vice president were quickly deactivated. The appointment had a special political connotation, it was the launch of an internal debate table of the local party, an instance of discussion that different sectors of the ruling party claim to prevail at the national level. Fernández’s position, at this time, goes in the opposite direction: he resists that initiative that he promoted at some point, he demands that the coalition partners defend his management and warns that, without alignment, the right will return to the Casa Rosada. “The day we divided (Mauricio) Macri was president“He launched in the Chaco.
The President’s warning coincides with the projection made by the Vice President. Under current conditions, the chances of an official defeat in 2023 are high. In what the electress and the elected differ is in the causes. The head of state assures that a possible debacle will be the result of the lack of internal cohesion, Cristina Kirchner insists that it will be the product of the lack of responses to a dramatic social reality. It was precisely in that same province, three weeks ago, where the former president alluded to the disappointment of the frontist electorate. “We are not honoring so much trust, so much love and so much hope that they placed in us,” she sentenced at the Universidad del Chaco, a space where yesterday’s activity was to take place and was modified at the last minute. In response, Fernández reiterated his request for patience and accompaniment. “Improving workers’ wages is an imperative” for the government, he said, while remarking to Kirchnerism that “the enemy” is not internal, but rather “the damn right.”
In the midst of the crossed statements and faced with the question of how to cushion the shocks, Capitanich –who does not hide his presidential aspirations– began the first congress of the Chaco FdT. “It is a space that guarantees unity in diversity“, summed up the governor. It was one more step in the institutionalization of the local Frente de Todos, an experience that he launched in April, which was imitated by Axel Kicillof in the province of Buenos Aires and that both Kirchnerism and massism intend to spread. At the national level, the Minister of the Interior, “Wado” de Pedro, even expressed it face to face with the president during the last European tour and different Albertist leaders have been raising it with the President, until now, without success.
Interestingly, the first to mention this possibility was Fernández himself more than a year ago. In February 2021, prior to the electoral defeat and the internal explosion, in dialogue with Page 12, affirmed that the coalition had to be “institutionalized” so that “everyone has a voice within the space” and gave the political architecture of the Broad Front in Uruguay as an example. A year and a half later, his conception of that alternative changed. At Casa Rosada they maintain that creating a discussion table is valid, but they clarify that the rest of the participants must understand that “the last word is with the President.” In short, they are not willing to open a debate, for example, regarding the continuity of Martín Guzmán or Matías Kulfas in the Cabinet. Under that argument, they question the proposal and assure that in case of promoting it there would be strong differences regarding who should sit at the table. “Would the CGT, the social organizations and the governors take place?”they ask. Hence, there is a widespread pessimism regarding how complex it is to advance in an alley that for now has no way out. In the daily back and forth, Kirchnerism alleges that Fernández refuses to listen to them and Albertism maintains that they not only want to be heard but also define management policies. “The debate does not worry me, I am worried regarding the obstruction of the Government”, the President graphed during his visit to Spain.
Mass vs. Guzman
The last few days seemed to go through a climate of greater calm. Nevertheless, In the midst of less noisy days, another long-standing silent dispute appeared: that of the Minister of Economy with Sergio Massa. The president of the lower house once once more demanded that Guzmán update the so-called “minimum non-taxable” income tax. The head of the economic portfolio had already stated that, given the inflationary levels, “it was obvious” that it was going to be updated. “If it is obvious, let’s not wait,” retorted the deputy of the Renovating Front Cecilia Moreau, in the face of speculation that the minister wanted to postpone it for the second semester.
At Massa’s insistence, Fernández interceded in favor of Tigrense. It was for a simple mathematical reason. If there are three majority partners in the coalition, you cannot have an open conflict with two. That is why he gave in and Massa won the arm wrestling match once morest Guzmán, in days when the minister strengthened his power in the Cabinet — he absorbed the Secretary of Commerce and added one of his men, Guillermo Hang, to replace the outgoing Roberto Feletti. “Here neither one wins, here the workers won. Discussing solutions to solve problems is neither bad nor a fight, it is simply marking a path to find answers”, said Massa following the announcement on the steps of the Casa Rosada. However, it was one more chapter of the not so strident tensions that exist between the minister and the former mayor. In Economy they accuse Massa of constantly seeking protagonism and they remember his visits to the United States to intervene in the negotiation of the debt. In the massismo they point out that the minister is “politically lacking” and that he is held in office only by the presidential bench.
In a new move to mark the agenda, the president of the Lower House announced this Saturday that they have already begun “working on a proposal that alleviates the situation of the self-employed and monotributistas.” This is another initiative that puts pressure on the Executive, such as the advancement of the schedule of increases in the minimum, vital and mobile salary pushed by deputy Máximo Kirchner. In the Government they maintain that they are not concerned regarding this type of legislative debate, but rather the lack of defense of the management and, above all, friendly fire. “If we keep saying that everything is wrong, the right will govern us”, summed up spokeswoman Gabriela Cerruti. Despite everything, the President is convinced that he is on the right path and, as he said this week, he is certain that “Time will prove him right.”
