Silvina Batakis has finally managed to supplant a large part of the Nation’s board of directors. They want to put people they trust.
The new president of Banco Nación, Silvina Batakis, has waged a tough political battle for control of Banco Nación. And in the end he succeeded. By the Government and at the express request of the President Alberto Fernández, they asked for the resignation of the entire board of the institution, as the former Minister of Economy had asked a few days ago. From this morning from the Legal and Technical Secretariat they called the entire management of the bank asking them to leave their positions, something they resisted.
Batakis’ goal is to identify a large part of the team that accompanied her during her very short administration at the helm of the Ministry of Economy – about 25 people – and occupies at least 4 of the 9 places in the directory with the people you trust most. Most directors have refused to leave their posts, which they consider political positions, unless requested personally by the president. Something that finally happened.
The Batakis plan has opened up an unexpected source of conflict. His aspiration is to appoint Karina Angeletti (former Secretary of Economic Policy), Martín Di Bella (former Secretary of the Treasury), Martín Pollera (former Secretary of Internal Commerce) and José Ballesteros (former Legal and Administrative Secretary) as directors of the Nation. “When the leadership changes, the officials make their resignations available, this is a manual,” explained close to Batakis.
One of the protagonists of the rebellion is Claudio Lozano, head of the Unión Popular, one of the factions of the Frente de Todos and one of the most ardent and tenacious critics of official economic policy. Last Friday he was also eliminated against Sergio Massa. In dialogue with ClarioneLozano himself he expressed his unease at the decision of the Casa Rosada. “We were surprised that Batakis asked for the entire management of the bank to be beheaded, what was wrong. Now the presidency has requested it and we are amazed that they want to compensate in this way when the leadership of the nation has beensuccess, “complained the former official.
The detainee in the main state bank once again shifted the official leadership. “It is very rare that he continues, because his critical positions are not new”, reasoned this morning the close friends of the appointed head of the Nation, alluding to the situation in Lozano. Batakis awaited the official decree defining the definitive composition of the council. As happened to her, when she was made official on 5 August with decree 457, which bears the signature of the President and of Massa.
Like Lozano, there were 4 others who were taken from their chairs: Cecilia Fernández Bugna, Federico Sánchez, Angel Mercado and Guillermo Wierzba. In essence, those officials said with some indignation that only the president could ask them to resign. “You are another director in charge of the presidency,” they said. Today things have changed.
As it turned out, Batakis had talked about the changes at the top of the entity with Alberto F., and they denied that there is a confrontation with the entire board. The former Minister of Economy intends to go further and wants to appoint another twenty of his regular collaborators in other strategic places of the institution and in its 6 companies linked to the group: Insurance, Reinsurance, Retirement, Stock Exchange, Services and Carlos Pellegrini finance. In total, the nation has 17,500 employees.
The interior of the Banco Nación was complex if it had lasted over time. Its management is in the hands of a board of directors consisting of the president, a vice president and 8 directors. All of them “are appointed by the national executive power and represent in a balanced way the different sectors, activities and regions that make up the national economic activity”, states the organic charter. “Batakis can’t have the council against him, because he couldn’t sign anything. “said a source who knows how the entity works.
Batakis hopes that the President will resolve the conflict, that he will ask for the corresponding resignation that will allow him to control an entity, which was offered to him when he was expelled from the Ministry of Economy. As soon as he took office, he specifically asked his predecessor, Eduardo Hecker, to ask the board of directors to make his resignation available, which until Tuesday morning had only been fulfilled by Martín Ferré, a former Buenos Aires cabinet official. Daniel Scioli.
Silvina Batakis wants to kick out the entire board of Banco Nación, but Claudio Lozano resists and criticizes Sergio Massa
Claudio Lozano challenges Silvina Batakis: he says that “you are one more director” of Banco Nación and that the one who has to ask for his resignation is Alberto Fernández
Damiano Kantor
Source: Clarin