Argentina’s economy minister and presidential candidate Sergio Massa in Buenos Aires on August 8, 2023.AGUSTIN MARCARIAN (Portal)
The Peronist candidate and Argentina’s Economy Minister Sergio Massa stood in front of the television camera on Tuesday and answered the journalist’s first question about how he was doing. In the morning he had visited an electronics factory in the city of Rosario, 300 kilometers from Buenos Aires; in the afternoon he participated in a major action with a union center in the suburbs of Buenos Aires; Then he witnessed the end of the election campaign of a colleague from his department. “Okay, a little tired,” he told the reporter after midnight. Ever since he was nominated as a candidate, and especially in the last week, the Peronist campaign has been on him. President Alberto Fernández and Vice-President Cristina Kirchner have settled backstage at the last leg before the primary elections this Sunday.
The ruling party’s two key speakers have been mired in their own agendas this week. Alberto Fernández expressed it in a radio interview: “I try with great effort to stay out of the election campaign, because I shouldn’t be the one campaigning, but the candidates.” That day he said he didn’t know where he was will wait for the results of the primaries, for which the Peronist coalition Unión por la Patria has two pre-candidates: Massa, who was surprisingly appointed in June, and the social leader Juan Grabois, who presented after the pre-candidates of Minister Eduardo de Pedro and Ambassador Daniel Scioli was in favor of Massa.
The night before Massa’s tour of factories, stages and sets, Fernández had answered questions on social media. With his term in office still four months away, the president, with a very negative image, devoted himself to answering questions from citizens from the garden of the official residence, accompanied by his Dylan. “Why did you continue to teach at the UBA? [Universidad de Buenos Aires]?”, “How is Dylan?” or “Three reasons to vote for Massa?” “Laura, I can give you a lot more than three reasons,” her answer began. Fernández checked the minister’s resume up to 2022: “One day the economic situation became complicated and I had to turn to him.”
Massa, who never hid his presidential ambitions — he ran in 2015 with his own party, the Frente Renovador, and failed — took office as economy minister in 2022. Martín Guzmán, the architect of an agreement between Argentina and the Monetary Union Fund International (IMF) that broke up the governing alliance, had just resigned. In June, he was surprisingly selected as a pre-candidate. Fernández already had his nominee, Argentina’s ambassador to Brazil Daniel Scioli, and Kirchner backed Interior Minister Eduardo de Pedro. The intern wanted to play between the two. But then the Unión por la Patria reported “a list of unity” on social networks: “Our presidential candidate will be Sergio Massa.”
Massa’s candidacy was announced after the economy minister and vice president met behind closed doors on a Friday. After facing each other for years, they showed unity. Since then, Cristina Kirchner has appeared in three appearances together with the presidential candidate. The first occurred two days after the electoral rolls were closed, during the repatriation of a plane used for the dictatorship’s death flights; the second took place on July 9th on the occasion of the inauguration of the Nestor-Kirchner gas pipeline; The third event took place three weeks ago to mark the 15th anniversary of the renationalization of flagship airline Aerolíneas Argentinas.
Since then, Kirchner has not been shown publicly with Massa. His most notorious appearance came this week on social media, where he clashed with former President Mauricio Macri, a role model for Together for Change, the country’s main opposition coalition. The vice president was responding to the ex-president’s remarks in a TV interview about the IMF, which she blamed for causing “this whole catastrophe” in the country. “You brought it, dad. At some point in your life, take responsibility for something. By God!” Kirchner wrote. He later accused him of being a “mafioso” in another message. Macri replied that “it should be more serious and not so cheesy” (usually).
Oh really? you fuck me How is the fund doing now? If you brought him, dad… Sometime in your life, take responsibility for something. Oh dear God! https://t.co/WhbBd0BxZl
— Cristina Kirchner (@CFKAArgentina) August 8, 2023
Kirchner, those around him said, would not attend the conclusion of Massa’s campaign in the city of La Plata this Thursday in order to travel to Río Gallegos in southern Argentina and vote on Sunday. Fernández was also not known if he would participate. The act was eventually suspended, like those of the other main candidates, due to the violent death of an 11-year-old girl, who died after two robbers attacked and beat her on her way to school. Massa shared a message from United for the Homeland’s official account, continuing his agenda in the duplicity of being minister and candidate before the ban begins this Friday.
Subscribe to the EL PAÍS America newsletter here and receive the latest news from the region.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits