Martín Guzmán absorbs the price policy and the controls continue

Martin Guzman and Roberto Feletti They plan to meet this Monday to order the venue and centralize a new work scheme for price control after Alberto Fernandez decided in the last few hours to put the minister at the forefront of the fight against inflation.

with back in crescendo of the President as Cristina Kirchner and La Cámpora staff intensified their criticism of the economic program, the success or otherwise of the fight against prices – the Government’s main concern in these times – puts further pressure to Guzmán in his work.

“Alberto dropped him, but he also knew Martin had to show results in the coming months”assured in this newspaper to a presidential kidney official that in recent days he had spoken to Fernández exclusively on that subject.

Guzman knew this. At Casa Rosada they stressed that the minister “has things in mind” to move forward in his new role, and that there will soon be news related to the “cautious pricing” program that, for now , has no expected results yet.

On Friday, in an interview with Radio con Vos, the President announced the Government’s passivity on the matter, and whitewashed that he sought help from louis paganithe leader of Arcor, in an extensive telephone conversation. Guzmán will seek an alliance with entrepreneurs: This is what it has been doing recently to protect itself from the attacks of Kirchnerism. There will be more individual meetings with the owners or CEOs of food companies and other manufacturers of key products.

“Martín knows the way, but there are also political implications. The economic plan must be respected”, slide, by way of defense, official sources. Reducing monetary emissions and the fiscal deficit, and the thickening of reserves agreed with the IMF, they tell the Economy, is the way to stabilize the inflationary spiral. So far, the plan has not gone ahead.

Guzmán knows that, in addition to Kirchnerism, his administration is closely monitored behind closed doors, even by the coalition sector that refers to the head of state.

In this sense, there are still those pushing for a cabinet reshuffle that, if they don’t get results in the coming months, should include the finance minister. This is, at least, what some officials want to insist on.

Since the signing of the agreement with the International Monetary Fund, Kirchnerism’s onslaught towards the minister has been relentless, and Fernández has been forced to support the official. no nuances, supported by economic indicators by which Casa Rosada justifies its response to criticism.

In this line, the head of state first stepped forward to empower the minister in front of energy area officials who questioned the tariff increases of the Metropolitan Area of ​​Buenos Aires, ordered by Casa Rosada and executed by Guzmán. The President and the Minister sat together Dario Martinez and asked him to stand behind them for public hearings last week.

After that, the president from Europe said that officials who did not comply with the order should leave the government. On her return, after touring Madrid, Berlin and Paris that once again exposed internal differences with Cristina Kirchner, Fernández Guzmán was invited to breakfast at Olivos: That was their first meeting after a week abroad. There they began to move forward with the decision to give the minister the management of the Secretary of Commerce.

In recent times, Guzmán has begun to focus more on the energy sector: he has multiplied meetings with sector leaders while K officials in that area such as Frederic Basualdo they dedicated themselves to the publicity of their public agendas. Over a year or so, the minister tried to remove the undersecretary of Electric Power, but he could not. This is an important decision in the link to Kirchnerism.

Over the past month and a half, the possibility of making the Ministry of Energy the secretariat, and various options have been considered for the Minister of Economy to take certain control of the sector.

On Tuesday, for now, the publication of a decree releasing stocks for energy investment, a long-standing need of oil traders, is scheduled. He flew, for example, the lunch a few weeks ago the President and the minister had in Olivos with Paolo Rocca and Luis Betnaza, from the Techint group.