Santiago Soldati came out exultant with his cell phone in hand. “I got it, I have the photo,” he said with a smile. The stairs of the Uruguayan embassy in Buenos Aires were completely packed and the line had fierce struggles of political leaders and businessmen to reach the presidential kiss. It was not about Alberto Fernández, but about Luis Lacalle Pou, Uruguayan president, who could not get out of his astonishment. Each and every one of those who greeted him this Thursday night for the 197th anniversary of Uruguay’s declaration of national independence repeated: “I wish we had a president like you,” “we need someone who unites and not divides.” , “thank you for showing that you can change by telling the truth”, were just some of the phrases that were used.
Another businessman who gave a standing ovation during the announcements of Serge Massa at the head of the Ministry of Economy went further with a speech adapted to the context: “I hope it is Lacalle who crosses the pond and not my peers, who they invest more and more in Uruguay and less in Argentina. He should be our president”, he said ironically from the off the record who until recently smiled at Alberto.
The line of attendees at the Uruguayan embassy turned around on Figueroa Alcorta Avenue and most were surprised because Lacalle Pou was not announced at the meeting this Thursday night.
Under his breath, another of the main businessmen in Argentina was amazed at what is happening these days. “After the more than unfortunate presidential words and his subjugation by the institutions, we issued a formal invitation, but we hope you don’t come to our next release. The farther the better,” she graphed. And he added that never in his ten years as leader of one of the largest companies in the country had this happened to him: he doesn’t care if the President is in the photo or not. The unpredictable speech of Alberto Fernández is for businessmen today a completed cycle. They are already in 2023 and there he does not play for the red circle.
“Our country still needs to go through the separation and independence of powers to be a true Republic, not only formally, but in daily practice,” they summarized in a harsh statement from the Christian Association of Business Leaders. Much more concise was the IDEA message, which invited people to be responsible and generalized: “We ask the entire political spectrum to fully respect republican values, which are avoid confrontation and that progress be made on an agenda aligned with the priorities of the common citizen”. The internal debate in business entities is red hot. In private, everyone is outraged by the presidential intimidation of the prosecutor Diego Luciani, the future of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in the road trial and the growing inflation. In public -for those who still inhabit Argentine territory- the pragmatism of their businesses weighs more and 66% of the 2022 that has already passed. Corporate doves and hawks are the order of the day. Some allege that silence is always the best strategy and others assure that having remained silent during the k administration turned them into accomplices.
An exception will be given on September 2 in a meeting that is kept under lock and key and is the celebration of the day of the industry. It will be in Neuquén and with Vaca Muerta as a backdrop. There the faces will be seen publicly Massa and Fernández; Y Daniel Funes of Rioja, head of the Argentine Industrial Union, will officiate as host. That day they will take the microphone from the Government to formally launch the Néstor Kirchner Gas Pipeline -of which so much has been said- and put a narrative to the energy independence that they seek to achieve in 12 months. There will be room for an industrialist initiative and parallels with the arrival of the railway and an economic model a la Frondizi. These two inputs are already in the prepared speech of one of the four speakers.
The presidential agenda continues these days with idle times (one or two irrelevant official activities), while that of the Minister of Economy, advances squares and takes more and more square meters of power. For instance, Fernández was only at an event in Escobar on Thursday (with Alexis Guerrera) and a meeting with the Indian foreign minister, in addition to his unfortunate television interview. On Friday he did not step on the Casa Rosada.
Massa, on the other hand, closed the week with a meal on Friday night with the accredited ambassadors in Argentina that make up the Group of Seven. There were the representatives of Germany -who acted as host as president of the G-7-, Japan, the United States, France, Canada, Italy and the United Kingdom.
Nothing is accidental: Its countries generate more than 40% of the contributions to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and they account for a third of the world’s exports and imports of goods and services. The Minister of Economy had come prepared, in what was his first test before the trip to the United States. At the close of the meeting, one of the ambassadors present pointed out to him that, unlike his predecessor, ideology had not been the axis but numbers.
That same argument prepares for his meetings with investors, the IMF and the government of Joe Biden, on his first trip to Washington and Houston, on a tour that has a double objective: direct the second review of the agreement with the Fund and expand business and the supply of dollars in Argentina. A meeting is planned with the managing director of the Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, and with Joe Biden’s main adviser for Latin America, Juan González, with whom they maintain a close relationship. “I don’t want anyone lumpening over there. So my officials will go for the day, or at most what is fair and necessary for their respective meetings”, he was heard a few days ago, in his meeting with the small table of the economic cabinet that in some cases will only be in the United States for 24 hours. Raúl Rigo (Secretary of Finance), Leonardo Madcur (head of advisers) and Gabriel Rubinstein (vice minister) will be the first to land and for more days, because they have the most technical follow-up. Silvina Batakis -ex-minister- with the idea of concealing her messy exit from the government and showing a theatrical cohesion and Flavia Royón, with a view to Houston and the search for dollars in disbursements, also have a confirmed departure ticket -among others-. In the talks that are coming, a cloud begins to appear in what insiders call “the heavy inheritance”, but not from Mauricio Macri but from Martín Guzmán. While the former minister advances on the guidelines of his new national think tank from which he hopes to export services at the official exchange rate, Massa and his team discovered a supposed “make-up of the second quarter accounts”, which would leave the man in a bad light. from La Plata. “He rearranged the numbers so that they would close him and we are evaluating whether to tell it publicly or not,” a Massista official said softly. And he added that he “was very unprofessional, not only in form, but in substance.” We will have to see what happens in such a case with the review of the Fund.
Meanwhile, Massa seeks to cut spending by another $130,000 million until the end of the year, as revealed by Diego Cabot in THE NATION. Public companies will be asked for a cut of between 3% and 7% in expenses in real terms, so negotiations are the order of the day. But that’s not enough. Hence the silence of key provinces such as Buenos Aires, where they know that the minister has the pen that can change the political map of Governor Axel Kicillof, in the face of the search for his re-election. At the moment, both look the other way but the macro scarcity will surely find them in antagonistic positions soon. Like the true sleeplessness that can turn Massa’s presidential dream into a nightmare: the lack of dollars.
That is where words fail. A former minister of the Macri government put numbers to reality. Serge is a expert in buying time. The real urgency is in the foreign exchange market. On Friday, the Central bought a million dollars and the next eight weeks it must buy at least 100 million dollars per day, but it cannot find a way around it, ”he shot. What’s the urgency? he asked. THE NATION.
“Because it has zero net reserves. The liquid ones are negative and that is not sustainable. You have to prepare because new debts will surely come hidden in a story. Nothing surprising in a government marked by procrastination”, he concluded. This diagnosis coincides with a phrase that was heard on the fifth floor of the Ministry of Economy. “If we manage to swell the reserves and manage the dollar, we have the first battle won. Then you have to go for the Israel Plan, energy, entrepreneurship, lithium and lower inflation, ”he summarized. Paradoxically, the same campaign argument used by Horacio Rodriguez Larreta, Who could be your opponent in the next election?