The president of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, and his vice president, Cristina Kirchner, met again in public on Friday (3) during an event that celebrated the centenary of the oil company YPF. The meeting comes after several months of tension within the ruling party due to the economic course that the Executive must take after the agreement reached with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
During the event, held at the Tecnópolis fairgrounds, in the province of Buenos Aires, the two were close, sharing harsh criticisms of the opposition and extolling the principles defended by their political current, Peronism. Yesterday’s act marked the first public meeting between the president and his vice since March 1, when they were together at the opening of the ordinary sessions of Congress.
The last three months were marked by their disputes over the economic policy of the government, which made a series of commitments (reducing the fiscal deficit, accumulating reserves and reducing energy subsidies) with the IMF to refinance a debt of more than US$ 40 billion.”I will continue to ask all my comrades to help me, to be the just, free and sovereign Argentina that Perón and Evita dreamed of, Cristina and Néstor dreamed of and I dream of”, said Alberto Fernández at the end of his speech, in which he once again called for the “unity” of the Executive.
The first to speak was Cristina, former president between 2007 and 2015 and leader of Kirchnerism, a wing of Peronism that in recent months has harshly attacked the management of several members of Fernández’s cabinet, especially Economy Minister Martín Guzmán. This time, the former president and current vice president avoided any kind of criticism of the Executive and asked the president to use the “pen” in his negotiations with business groups.
“There is a national sport of taking possession of the reserves that are in the Central Bank under different mechanisms, especially when we have a gap like the one we have. What I ask of you (Alberto) is that you use the pen, that you use it with those who have to give things to the country, you have to use it”, spoke the vice president to applause.
The also head of the Senate took advantage of her speech to take stock of her term as president, between 2007 and 2015, a stage marked, among other events, by Repsol’s expropriation of 51% of YPF, and focused the rest of her speech on attacking her successor, the liberal Mauricio Macri (2015-2019). “We have to understand that decisions that always respond to the interests of the vast majority encounter many criticisms, many pitfalls, but believe me, the sensation and feelings that one experiences when one feels that one has fulfilled a duty is indescribable”, assured Cristina, in relation to the nationalization of the oil company.
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