President Alberto Fernández greeted Casa Rosada workers for the holidays / telam
In a week in which it suffered the rudeness of the National Team, which decided not to visit the Casa Rosada and to mix with a society full of happiness, the Government moved away from the World Cup fervor and accelerated the confrontation against the opposition and Justice. The “uprising” against the Constitution that Juntos por el Cambio denounces after the Executive, with the support of the majority of the Peronist governors -but without Córdoba or Santa Fe-, decided not to abide by the ruling of the Supreme Court preannounces an electoral year of extreme tension, with a paralyzed Congress – the lack of agreement truncated, for example, the session in Deputies last Wednesday – and many questions about the progress of an economy still in crisis.
They were intense days in which Alberto Fernández implemented two unprecedented measures since the end of 1983: he decided to “empty” the Casa Rosada of personnel and accredited press to force the visit of a World Champion squad that did not allow itself to be seduced and, as he said yesterday Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, was the first president “since the return of Democracy” who ignored “a Court ruling” that, in this case, returned resources to the federal capital co-opted by the Nation in September 2020.
Support for Larreta
Without fissures, in JxC they came out to support the demand of the Buenos Aires mayor and the need to have more than $250 billion next year to finance his administration. And, at the same time, they warned that the determination of the Executive “is the prelude to putting the Republic and democracy at stake” because the Court “is the last guarantee of legality.”
In this sense, a period of greater confrontation with the ruling party is expected and, perhaps, of pre-eminence of the toughest sectors of the opposition coalition. But the response to Alberto F.’s decision not to abide by the highest court’s order had nuances: only deputy Ricardo López Murphy and the UCR bloc in the lower house announced that they would ask for his impeachment.
Both Larreta and Elisa Carrió, perhaps aware of the impossibility of bringing together two thirds of the Chamber of Deputies to advance in said process, anticipated that they will criminally denounce the President and the officials who resist the application of the court ruling.
In the armed opposition they argue that it is the Province that keeps most of the resources that the Nation now retains from the CABA. That is why they reject that federalism is at stake with the “correction” promoted by the Court. It is that previously several provincial leaders took from the chest of memories the battle between unitaries and federals that was fought in this vast territory in the 19th century.
Beyond the discomfort of many Peronist governors over a resolution that takes away funds to later transfer them to the “richest city in the country” -ignoring the character of “province” granted by the highest court to the federal capital-, the new conflict of powers gives the Frente de Todos a chance to hold together amid violent internal disputes and the ongoing economic crisis.
political cohesion
In fact, the Government achieves political cohesion and winks at Cristina Kirchner who has just accused the Justice of being part of “a mafia” that has her as a victim. Kirchnerism also likes this dispute because it seeks to guarantee funds for the province of Buenos Aires, its electoral stronghold and where in 2023 it will try to take refuge in fear of an electoral defeat at the national level. “We are not asking for an update on the transfers, but we are constantly negotiating,” they conceded close to Axel Kicillof, who on Friday “copied” Casa Rosada with a team of collaborators including Minister Julio Alak (Justice).
The control of spending triggers conflicts with sectors in theory allied to the ruling party
The request for recusal of the four courtiers and the decision not to update the drip for Coparticipation to the capital by 2.97 percent will buy time for the Executive due to the imminence of the judicial fair. But surely when the highest court fully operates again, it will reject the maneuver concocted by the ruling party and could “execute” the sentence via seizure of the accounts, for example, of Banco Nación.
But in the immediate future, this plan serves to homogenize even a League of PJ Governors who, as one of the unionists who participated in the conclave at the CFI on Monday, December 12 observed, lacks “a synthesis that allows us to infer a leadership” that guide the electoral strategy that the FdT should give itself.
The movement of governors
Two Peronist leaders from “big provinces”, such as Omar Perotti (Santa Fe) and Juan Schiaretti (Córdoba), did not accompany the onslaught against the Court and four others from different governors by provincial parties (Salta, Río Negro, Misiones and Neuquén), They carried out a lukewarm accompaniment to the Executive’s move without initialing the statement made known on Thursday night and demanding an “equitable” distribution of the funds in dispute (in an elliptical message to the Province).
The episode, however, caused shocks the day before in markets fearful of the continuity of “legal security” with a new jump in the blue dollar and country risk.
After the IMF approved the goals for the third quarter of the year, and released a disbursement of US$ 6 billion, in Economy they rejoiced that “the stricter macroeconomic measures adopted since July are beginning to bear fruit: inflation is moderating, the trade balance is improving and reserve coverage is gradually consolidating.” It was an elliptical endorsement of a policy of adjustment that comes face to face with the recipes that, in private, Cristina preaches.
The Vice will return to Avellaneda on Tuesday, the same district in which last June during an act he stated that the issue and the fiscal deficit did not generate inflation, and surely he will rise to a cracked speech and a new attack against Justice. It is the result of the “toad” of having to politically validate the massista adjustment.
This week the Center for Political Economy of Argentina (CEPA), highly valued by the former president, warned that according to the latest official data “the phenomenon of ‘poor workers’ is confirmed: in November the income of half of wage earners in the private sector were still 10 points below the poverty line”.
The control of spending also triggers conflicts with sectors supposedly allied with the ruling party, such as the social movements that once again won the streets in tune with their peers on the left. Added to these protests was the “camping” in Plaza de Mayo by Tupac Amaru militants who are pressuring Alberto F. to pardon Milagro Sala before the end of the year.
