Mauricio Macri and Cristina Kirchner on December 10, 2019 in Buenos Aires. Natacha Pisarenko (AP)
The inauguration of a nearly 600-kilometer gas pipeline crossing Argentina from west to east has brought the two most important political spaces in Argentina into confrontation for months. Cristina Kirchner and Mauricio Macri, the two former presidents, both at antipodes and neither of the two candidates in the October elections, had been battling for revenue for the country’s key energy infrastructure work in recent years. Before, during and after the presentation of the work, which took place this Sunday, the two expressed mutual criticism. Between tweets, Kirchner brought Macri’s mom into the fight. “Don’t mess with my mother, Vice President, who was a good mother,” Macri replied. And here the debate ended.
On Sunday, Economy Minister and presidential candidate Sergio Massa of the Unión por la Patria (the coalition that brings together the three main branches of Peronism in government), President Alberto Fernández and his Vice-President Cristina Kirchner were present in the city of Salliqueló, in the province of Buenos Aires, at to inaugurate the work. It was July 9, Argentina’s Independence Day, and they accomplished what Peronism regards as a “historic” step toward restoring energy sovereignty.
A few hours after the event ended, the Vice President launched a tweet summarizing what she had already said during the event. Kirchner criticized that during her political rival’s government, “53 kilometers of long-distance gas pipelines” were laid that “had no impact on the transport system,” while during her husband’s government (2003-2007) and both governments, they “had no impact on the traffic system” would have been installed in her (2007-2015) “3,211 kilometers”. “Now it’s clear why his mother punished him for his lies,” ended the message, which, without mentioning it, was addressed to Macri.
Regarding the numbers we talked about yesterday at the inauguration of the President Nestor Kirchner gas pipeline, which, with its 573 km, allows the integration of 11 million m3/day into the main gas network in this first phase.
Between 2003 and 2015, 3,211 km…
— Cristina Kirchner (@CFKAArgentina) July 10, 2023
The vice president was referring to a 2019 interview published by the political magazine Noticias, in which Macri’s mother, Alicia Blanco Villegas, told journalist Daniela Gian: “I hit him.” [a Mauricio Macri] for lying, which I regret, but you should never lie.
Macri had also criticized before, during and after the crime. “The government is announcing with great fanfare a gas pipeline that is three years late and cost Argentina more than $5 billion to delay,” he wrote on Twitter on Sunday. In the message, he also ironically ironized the name of the plant, which was christened after former President Néstor Kirchner (“Excuse me if I don’t call him by his official name”) and finally made a concession: “Now at least we have something concrete. Let’s take advantage of it.”
The Vice President’s chicana brought him back into the ring: “He accuses me of not having built gas pipelines. Why would he do it when he left us with no gas to transport? Her government and her husband’s were energy catastrophic, the worst in history: production fell almost every year, imports and subsidies multiplied.” In the end he defended his mother: “And don’t mess with my mother, Vice President who was a good mother.”
The vice president accuses me of not having built gas pipelines. Why would he do it when he left us with no gas to transport? Her government and her husband’s were energy catastrophic, the worst in history: production fell almost every year, the… pic.twitter.com/214ksR6oiS
— Mauricio Macri (@mauriciomacri) July 10, 2023
At the heart of the fight is the debate over who will score the goal for a plant that the ruling party says will save more than $4,200 million a year in gas imports – although it has also drawn criticism from some sectors of the population due to environmental and social concerns Consequences of an extractivist model.
In July 2019, Mauricio Macri of the right-wing Cambiemos alliance signed a decree on the need and urgency of the Energy Ministry to tender the construction of a gas pipeline that would connect the town of Tratayén in Neuquén with the town of Tratayén in Salliqueló, where this Sunday the first section of the works was inaugurated. The aim was to transport part of the gas extracted from the Vaca Muerta field throughout the area.
The call for tenders was carried out, but the opening date of the bids was extended three times – twice during Cambiemos’ management – until the end of December 2020. Before the deadline for the last extension expired, the tender was canceled by the government of Alberto Fernández.
In February 2022, the government declared the construction of the gas pipeline to be of public interest and granted the concession to the state-owned company Energía Argentina. During the tenders for the purchase of materials, a controversy also arose within the government between the sectors led by Alberto Fernández and Cristina Kirchner, which led to the resignation of the Minister of Production, Matías Kulfas. After several months, the pipeline could finally be inaugurated. And the inauguration became a campaign event for both political spaces.
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