The former chief of advisors to President Alberto Fernández questioned the Minister of Economy and considered that he was the “scapegoat for the currency run”
By iProfessional
03/05/2023 – 13,31hs
After resigning from his position as Chief of Advisors to President Alberto Fernández, Antonio Aracre broke the silence and strongly criticized the Minister of Economy Sergio Massa. “I was the scapegoat of the currency run,” he said in dialogue with a radio station and said that there is no clear plan to control inflation and generate income distribution.
In this context, he affirmed that the head of the Palace of Finance “does not have a stabilization plan” and retorted: “If there is a Sergio Massa plan, I did not know it. If you know it, I would like to know what it consists of.”
“I think that Massa has a plan that many people pejoratively call the plan to arrive, that if you see the latest measures that were taken with the interest rate and with the bonds it is definitely generate a nominal spiraling of inflation“, pointed out the former head of Advisors to the Presidency.
Within this framework, Aracre highlighted: “It does not seem to me that in a context like the one Argentina has today, Massa can afford to leave the Ministry of Economy because, beyond his technical knowledge or that of his team, has a series of political characteristics around Kirchnerism and Albertismo that position him as a very adequate person”.
Asked by CNN Radio if he was the scapegoat for the latest currency run, he said: “Yes. It’s very possible, I felt I don’t have the skills for politics.” Then he explained: “In politics, the bagel is worth more than action, it bores me, I see a serious problem and I need to go out and see what is done with it quickly.”
Aracre gave details of the Moments before and after the currency run, after the INDEC announcement that March inflation had been 7.7%, well above the financial market projections. He explained that before he had visualized the possibility of a mess, for which he had proposed a meeting with the secretaries of the portfolio and with Massa.
Despite their differences, Aracre considers that Massa should continue as Minister of Economy
“I did not bring a plan to the President, but I did tell him ‘look, there are things to do’ and he told me ‘look, why don’t you write me something and tell me in that Paper what are the things that can be done'” he added.
“The Paper existed, obviously that later there were people who leaked it edited. As a result of that Paper that I sent to the President, we met for lunch and chatted,” Aracre said about the hours before submitting his resignation on April 18, after several hours of crossed operations in which he was mentioned as a possible replacement for Sergio Massa in the Economy, a rumor that ended up ejecting him from the Government.
In that line, Aracre described: “I had no reason to think that it was a betrayal (toward Massa). It seems to me very strange this conspiracy theory that a Chief of Advisers to a President cannot sit down to talk and have lunch with the President to discuss the state of the economy. It seems delusional to me. If it’s not, it’s good that I ran from there because then I don’t quite understand what my place would be.”
Asked if he had an “off the record” with journalists to talk about the economic plan that he had presented to the head of state, he replied: “That was the version of the spokesperson (Gabriela Cerruti), who took care of disseminating it and tell or persuade the President on that issue”.
Cecilia Moreau’s harsh response: “She has the nerve to speak”
The first to come out at the crossroads of Antonio Aracre’s sayings was the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Cecilia Moreauwho spoke of the “effrontery” of the former Chief of Advisers to the Presidency.
“The one who generated the currency runs by lying about the splitting and devaluation, the one who evaded millions of dollars with Syngenta and has to explain to justice what he did has the audacity to speak,” Moreau said on his Twitter account.
