Alberto, I swear it has nothing to do with it, I don’t know where it comes from. It’s an operation from another side.
– There’s no way you weren’t Tony. We were two for lunch…
Convinced and cornered by Sergio Massa’s ultimatum, after a tense day on the markets, Alberto Fernández vigorously reprimanded Antonio Aracre, his head of Advisors until then, for the rumors which revealed that at lunch on Monday they had spoken the direction of the economy and the feasibility of various initiatives which the former CEO of Syngenta, in his role as presidential aide, saw fit.
At the end of that lunch, Aracre left to say goodbye to his daughter who was returning to Sydney. But that night his phone exploded. Breakfast with the president had spread, the details of his ideas and the rumor that he wanted Massa’s job.
This was the leak the president had told him about. And what caused her indeclinable resignation Tuesday after the brief dialogue with Fernández.
In his short term of 90 days, with an office in the Casa Rosada, Aracre he never had the chance for a face-to-face meeting with Sergio Massa. Curious, because when he covered the role of managing director of the seed company Syngenta, of Chinese capital, he was consulted followed by the Minister of Economy. At the point, he was heavily involved in the first soy dollar.
The communication was interrupted as soon as Alberto designated it. Yes, Aracri He did not deprive himself of sending initiatives to the President on the economy.
On Friday, as March’s 7.7% inflation was released, Aracre called the president: “Alberto, an emergency committee must be formed urgently, You cannot insist that the idea of \u200b\u200bthe crisis should not be installed, the crisis is embodied in society. We need to find a tourniquet to stop the indexing of the economy.”
Fernández then summoned him to the lunch mentioned. And over the weekend Aracre prepared a note stating “the absolute lack of synchronicity between the Central Bank and the Ministry of Economy, noises that encourage the rise of free dollars, affect the interest rate and affect prices” .
He also warned that we cannot continue”buy dollars at $300 and sell at $200, some imports must be set at $300, otherwise the balance of the Central Bank will break, emissions will skyrocket and inflation will spiral”. And he specified that “if there are no incentives for producers such as the transformation of withholding taxes into tax credits in their favour, the liquidation will be a current account”.
Near Aracre, they attributed the leaks to spokeswoman Gabriela Cerutti, with “a growing influence on presidential decisions”.
Although the Casa Rosada made an effort to instill the idea that the head of state had asked for Aracre’s resignation, Cerruti let the media know that she was the key to that alleged presidential decision. But Aracres left before they kicked him out. “After what he (Alberto) told me, I understood that there was no way we could continue working together.”complained the former official in front of an interlocutor.
In public, Aracre tried to diplomatically close the link: “I take this opportunity to thank the President for having honored me with this position and he knows that he can count on me for everything he needs,” he wrote, in a message that Fernández repaid his “friend” for his “valuable participation in the government”.
Although relations with the President’s entourage were not good, among the important officials, the only one who said he was “sorry” about his departure was the Chief of Staff, Agustin Rossi- There are those who have a different view than Fernández on how the leak occurred. “Tony can not operate anyone”, chicaneado of official sources. In fact, two theories have been heard. One that pointed La Cámpora behind the leak that spread through the media. And another pointed to the economic area.
The first to make noise around Massa was the journalist Carlos Pagni, when he revealed Fernández’s lunch with Aracre. “Will Massa continue to be Economy Minister of this government or will he want to leave? In Government House there are those who say that Aracre warms up the engines”asked Odisea Argentina, his program on LN+.
Cerruti gave him centrality when he replied to the journalist Leandro Renou, who in his Twitter account, citing “very high-ranking sources” of Casa Rosada, stated that “the President would have thought that the former managing director of Syngenta and current head of directors of Alberto Fernández, Antonio Aracre, went to Economy instead of Massa”.
Cerruti came out at the crossroads: “I don’t know what the top sources would be because it’s not one of the top offices I’ve consulted. But in Casa Rosada we do not filter or deny journalistic inventions. Beyond the novel that some media create…,” he replied in a tweet, when the dollar had already gained momentum. As she herself pointed out, in what implied a complete contradiction, the spokesperson usually does not deny the leaks. His speech came late.
Mindful of other clashes he had had with the economic team, the last one in March, when he was accused by the Economy of having anticipated a doubling of the dollar for foreign trade, the head of the Advisors stood out: “It makes no sense to assume that Sergio can leave and much bigger to assume that I will go to him”he replied to exporters who consulted him on Tuesday morning.
The role of the spokeswoman was different in public than in private. On the one hand, in your tweet, you emphatically denied something with which you showed no doubts in your exchanges with the President: according to what this newspaper was able to reconstruct, you spoke out against Aracre. “Alberto was convinced that Tony had spoken”, did not hesitate an important sword of the president. “I don’t even have Pagni’s telephone number, I’ve never spoken to him”, Aracre defended himself in front of the president.
Others have asked to focus on the Central Bank, whose boss Miguel Pesce is starring in another detention with Massa. And there were many who bet on Massa.“Maybe he’s looking for an excuse to quit”, speculated a consulted voice. It was after the speech in which the Tigrense questioned his continuity: “It is he (for Aracre) or I”. Fernández, who had participated in a transport activity and wanted to stay out of it, did not hesitate and called Aracre.
The former CEO of Syngenta made things easy for him and anticipated his resignation. But before leaving he exploded against Cerruti: “Try to complicate the government less with your gruesome statements,” He snapped. Knowing she was victorious, the spokeswoman replied: “You’re right, sometimes I’m wrong, but I’m the undisputed minister on the matter and at least I have communication in order”.
Source: Clarin
