While Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was speaking at the event in Ensenada, the bomb of the resignation of the (now former) Minister of Economy, Martín Guzmán, began to circulate through social networks. “With deep conviction and confidence in my vision of what is the way forward, I will continue working and acting for a more just, free and sovereign country,” read Guzmán’s tweet that, in silence, many of the attendees began to be displayed on the screens of their cell phones. Murmurs, requests for confirmations, exchanges of glances: all while the vice president referred to the social plans and the need to discuss the Universal Basic Salary. During his entire speech, CFK mentioned Guzmán only once – to refer to the discussion about whether the deficit was the cause of inflation – but he never gave any indication that he had heard the news.
After the act, however, the first jokes and reflections began. Page 12 picked up some. “I believe that the minister has completed a stage and that now the government needs men to start the economy. This is not throwing people out into the streets, but rather finding the best men at all times to interpret the wishes of our people,” analyzed the former Mayor of Merlo, Gustavo Menéndez. “It seems to me a positive fact that has to serve to oxygenate us. To discuss and redefine the direction of the government,” said the secretary general of the CTA, Hugo Yasky. “It is a decision of Guzmán, I calculate that he talked with the president. What has to happen now is that policies are carried out that change reality,” said, on the other hand, the general secretary of SUTEBA in Buenos Aires, Roberto Baradel.
Senator Juliana Di Tullio, for her part, expressed on social networks that she was not surprised by the resignation and that it was “timely” and “expected.” In the same vein, Teresa García, president of the ruling bloc of Buenos Aires senators, indicated that “it was the chronicle of an announced resignation” and stressed that it is necessary to “change the economic model.” “I am not surprised, there was the compliment. Yes it is striking at the time it did. In the middle of Cristina’s speech … ”, she launched the leader about the time chosen by Guzmán to make the announcement. Meanwhile, the Governor’s Chief of Advisors Axel Kicillof, Carlos Bianco expressed that, beyond the names, “the most important thing is that all the actors of the Front, the main and secondary, can actually sit down at a table to discuss and make a synthesis of the different positions.”