The luxury vacation in Marbella was very expensive for Kirchnerist Martín Insaurralde, chief of staff for the province of Buenos Aires. Not only because of the more than 8,000 euros per day that it costs to rent the yacht on which he sailed through the Mediterranean with the model Sofía Clerici, but also because of the high political costs that this scandal had in the final phase of the Argentine election campaign brought with it. Insaurralde resigned last night, hours after his companion posted photos and videos of them kissing and toasting with French champagne.
“Because I don’t want to be used to influence the political space in the electoral process, I gave a lecture today [por ayer] “My resignation from the post of provincial chief of staff,” Insaurralde said in a short statement sent to the media last night. The resignation was accepted immediately and it is currently unknown who will replace him.
The published images sparked a wave of widespread rejection, even among those within their own ranks who were aware of the shooting. The province of Buenos Aires, the most populous in the country, is the great bastion of Kirchnerism. In the primaries on August 13, 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 vote, largely thanks to the leadership of Gov. Axel Kicillof, who is seeking re-election. If the negative results in October’s general elections continue, former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s faithful will hope to preserve this fiefdom to which they can retreat while they wait for the winds to change.
The scandal is an addition to another that emerged days ago following the arrest of a political leader in the Buenos Aires parliament with 48 credit cards belonging to suspected officials while using them to withdraw cash from ATMs.
According to his last affidavit submitted to the judiciary in 2022, Insaurralde’s assets are reduced to a house and two fixed installments in pesos, equivalent to about a thousand dollars. His salary as chief of staff was just over a million pesos (about 3,000). dollars at the official value) before you withdraw. Insaurralde, 53, suffered a costly divorce just months before her vacation in southern Spain, which is now the talk of the country. When asked how he was able to pay them, the suspicion of corruption arises. The answer lies in the hands of the judiciary: the opposition will report him for alleged unlawful enrichment.
“The boat belongs to a friend of my sister who lent it to us for a whole day of sailing,” Clerici justified on his Instagram account after deleting the photos of the trip he published. “The things I have, like wallets, watches, I bought myself,” she added, before urging Argentines to take care of their lives. The model turned 31 during the trip to Marbella and shared with her followers the Rolex she received as a gift.
The images were released on the eve of the presidential debate, which will take place this Sunday in the northern city of Santiago del Estero. It thus offers the opposition a new weapon to attack Massa, who must also answer for the failure of his economic management, in which inflation has risen to 124.4% year-on-year and poverty has exceeded 40%.
“They laugh in our faces and rob us,” Luis Petri, vice presidential candidate for Together for Change, said on social media. Milei also reiterated what happened: “When politicians tell you that public spending is sacred and that nothing can be cut, it’s because they care about the business that allows them to live like monarchs.” “For this joke They have little time left.” The candidate for governor of Buenos Aires for La Libertad Avanza, Carolina Píparo, tried to attack her rival Kicillof: “It is not enough with the resignation of Insaurralde, in Buenos Aires they have been in the for decades Lived misery while the vast majority of politicians “live like kings”.
47% of residents in the urban area surrounding Buenos Aires are poor, seven points higher than the national average. Among them is the city of Lomas de Zamora, which was ruled by Insaurralde before he left office to accompany Kicillof as head of cabinet. The images showing him on a yacht while millions of people don’t know how to make ends meet have ruined his political career. It remains to be seen whether he will carry his political boss along.