The luxury vacation in Marbella was very expensive for Kirchnerist Martín Insaurralde, Chief of Staff of the province of Buenos Aires. Not only for the more than 8,000 euros per day that it costs to rent the yacht for which he sailed with the model Sofía Clerici through the Mediterranean but for the high political cost to be paid for this scandal in the final stretch of the Argentine electoral campaign. Insaurralde resigned last night, hours after your companion published photos and videos in which they are seen kissing and toasting with French champagne.
“As I do not want to be used to affect the political space in the electoral process, I presented today [por ayer] my resignation from the position of chief of staff of the province,” Insaurralde said in a brief statement sent to the media last night. The resignation was accepted on the spot and it is unknown for now who will replace him.
The images released generated a wave of widespread repudiation, even from within their own ranks, aware of the shooting in the foot. The province of Buenos Aires, the most populated in the country, is the great bastion of Kirchnerism. In the primaries on August 13, the ultra presidential candidate Javier Milei won in 16 of the 24 provinces but not in this one. His Peronist rival, Economy Minister Sergio Massa, retained the majority of the votes largely thanks to the management of Governor Axel Kicillof, who is seeking re-election. If the adverse results in the October general elections continue, the faithful of former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner hope to preserve that fiefdom in which to retreat while waiting for the direction of the wind to change.
The scandal adds to another that emerged days ago as a result of the arrest of a political leader in the Buenos Aires Legislature with 48 credit cards of alleged public employees when he withdrew cash with them from ATMs.
Insaurralde’s assets are reduced to a home and two fixed installments in pesos for the equivalent of about a thousand dollars, according to his last sworn statement presented to Justice, in 2022. His salary as Chief of Staff was just over a million pesos (about 3,000 dollars at the official value) before resigning. Insaurralde, 53, faced a costly divorce a few months before taking the vacation in southern Spain that is now the talk of the entire country. When asked how he was able to pay them, he suspects corruption. The answer is in the hands of justice: the opposition will denounce him for alleged illicit enrichment.
“The boat belongs to a friend of my sister who they lent us for a whole day to sail,” Clerici justified on his Instagram account after having deleted the photographs he published of the trip. “The things I have like purses, watches, I bought them myself,” she added, before asking Argentines to take care of their lives. The model turned 31 during the trip to Marbella and shared with her followers the Rolex that she would have received as a gift from her.
The images were released on the eve of the presidential debate to be held this Sunday in the northern city of Santiago del Estero. Thus, it provides a new weapon to the opposition to attack Massa, who must also answer for the failure of his economic management, during which inflation has skyrocketed to 124.4% year-on-year and poverty has exceeded 40%.
“They laugh in our faces and rob us in our faces,” Luis Petri, candidate for vice president for Together for Change, expressed on social media. Milei also echoed what happened: “When politicians tell you that public spending is sacred and that nothing can be cut, it is because they are taking care of the businesses that allow them to live like monarchs. “They have little time left for this joke.” The candidate for governor of Buenos Aires for La Libertad Avanza, Carolina Píparo, sought to hit her rival, Kicillof: “It is not enough with the resignation of Insaurralde, in Buenos Aires they have lived in misery for decades while the vast majority of politicians live like Kings”.
47% of the inhabitants of the urban area that surrounds Buenos Aires are poor, seven points more than the national average. Among them is the town of Lomas de Zamora, governed by Insaurralde before he left office to join Kicillof as head of the Cabinet. Images showing him on a yacht when millions of people don’t know how to make ends meet have sunk his political career. It remains to be seen whether or not he drags his political boss with him.
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