Alberto Fernández’s International Agenda: Trips Abroad and Political Shifts

2023-08-04 02:32:41

Relegated from the electoral campaign, Alberto Fernández faces the end of his term with an agenda with a marked international tone. For the coming months, the President has scheduled several trips abroad that will allow him to avoid the wear and tear of management at the local level: thus, the most important decisions will remain in the hands of the Minister of Economy and presidential candidate of Unión por la Patria, Sergio Massa .

According to the schedule of activities of the Casa Rosada, the president will visit Paraguay after the PASO for the inauguration of Santiago Peña and, starting in September, New York, New Delhi (India), Chile and China. There are also possibilities that he will visit Cuba and South Africa.

Also read: Elections 2023, LIVE: latest news on the PASO, electoral roll, polls and candidates

At odds with hard Kirchnerism for months, the President is now not well valued in Massa’s entourage, who considers that his bad image takes away from the projection of the figure of the Tigrense in the face of the elections. In this context, Alberto F. accepts his new role and, isolated, barely participates in a low-flying agenda with officials from his “kidney”, such as Gabriel Katopodis, Agustín Rossi and Santiago Cafiero.

“The President decided to dedicate himself to management and pave the way for the candidates,” the presidential spokesperson, Gabriela Cerruti, explained hours ago at a press conference. And she gave details about the international agenda of the head of state: “In principle it is confirmed that he will attend the G-20 Summit in India, and the United Nations Assembly in New York. And then there are trips that can be made and are being analyzed, such as the G-77 in Cuba and an invitation to continue advancing with bilateral trade and deepening relations with China,” she said.

Together with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, during the last forum between CELAC and the EU, in Brussels. (Photo: AFP)

In addition, Cerruti added, “there is an invitation to attend the anniversary of Chile, on September 11.”

Underpinned by Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero, Fernández has already been appealing to the international arena, a much friendlier environment than an electoral campaign tainted by economic problems. In addition to a state visit to Brazil and the photo with Lula da Silva, hours after the closing of the lists, the head of state appeared at the Mercosur Summit and the forum in Brussels between CELAC and the European Union.

Also read: Massa is waiting for CFK in the suburbs and there is already talk of a closing ceremony for the campaign without her or Alberto Fernández

The idea that Alberto does not participate in the campaign of his own space in a critical section of the campaign -the previous one of the PASO- is not only promoted by hard Kirchnerism. Over the last few weeks, the Frente Renovador has convinced itself that the best strategy to position Massa as a presidential candidate is to “detach” him from the head of state.

In the environment of the Minister of Economy they seek to establish that “it was not a question of bad management, but of a bad President”. The order is clear: stop talking about what happened during the current administration and concentrate on showing that it was Massa who achieved greater stability.

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