It would be very difficult to imagine a more demanding and less rewarding job than the one you just held. Silvina Batakis. be in charge of Ministry of Economy of Argentina it’s not for everyone. As one of his favorite authors would have told him, the Cretan Nikos Kazantakisa lady willing to play such a role would need to have at least “a little madness” to believe she is capable of doing more than mentally preparing herself to be transformed into the target of volleys of cruel insults.
In addition to trying to manage variables that do not usually pay attention to the orders of those who are supposed to be able to control them, the person in charge of the national economy will have to get used to being blamed for the consequences of mistakes made by those who preceded him years and even decades ago. bad despite batakisalready owns an inflation rate that could soon exceed one hundred percent per year, a devastating energy crisis, the absence of credit and therefore of investments, unpaid debts, various exchange rate gaps, a frightening lack of genuine monetary resources and much more.
It is that, even though “the Greek” who for years collaborated with Daniel Scioli was the most prestigious economist on the planet and had the enthusiastic support of more than ninety percent of the country’s population, including picketers, trade unionists and members The most prominent members of the business “red circle”, would expect a relentless fight against the countless ideological fantasies that inhabit the collective head of the ruling class, groups that are determined to cling to their “conquests” at all costs to others and the generalized skepticism of the rest of the world that believes that it is about to witness the definitive collapse of the only “rich country” that managed to impoverish itself.
Indeed, to prevent the rickety and malnourished national economy from collapsing, Batakis will need much more than the cheering approval of Cristina Kirchner and the people of La Cámpora. While she will resist understanding it, enjoying the support of such characters does her a disservice. Unless he manages to generate confidence, that philosopher’s stone of the economic world, he will not be able to stop the constant increase in the cost of living by defending the value of the peso, but judging by the initial reaction of the markets, before starting his administration he had already lost a key battle due in large part to the fact that almost everyone takes her for a soldier of the rancorous vice president.
Unlike its predecessor, Martin Guzman, Batakis has assured -for now- the support of the most determined and influential political faction of the bizarre official coalition, but it happens that Kirchnerism is ideologically committed to schemes that depend on the availability of a lot of money to distribute in exchange for political support. Will he know how to find what he will need to satisfy his supporters? Unfortunately, it is highly unlikely. Could try to take more funds from the City of Buenos Airesthus reissuing the feat that allowed him to enjoy the favors of the boss, increase withholdings in the field and collect even more from the almost emptied “productive sector” that is working sadly, as the unionists of yesteryear used to say, but by acting This would further reduce the country’s ability to stay afloat. Although the Robin Hood strategy which is based on taking money from the rich who are not of the stick to give a part to the poor has ceased to be viable, the Kirchnerists have not been able to think of a less destructive one.
It is understandable, then, that the arrival at the Batakis Ministry of Economy has unleashed a tidal wave of uncertainty that is affecting many activities, since no one is in a position to foresee what could happen in the coming weeks. Thus, although it is possible that, if the prospects for the country are different, the qualified economist who answers to the Minister of the Interior, the field player Eduardo “Wado” de Pedrocould do an adequate job, it would be surprising if he survived for long in the position that was offered to him after Alberto realized that no other professional would accept him unless he was accompanied by virtually dictatorial powers.
The claims in this sense of Sergio Massa, Martin Redrado and others who were on the list of saviors in albert’s power They are far from exaggerated. An economy minister without much political power would have no choice but to try to convince the public, as he did Guzmanthat it is not his fault that prices continue to rise, that the dollar costs more and more pesos and the lack of diesel that is paralyzing transportation in different parts of the country is unimportant, while he would leave the task of blaming everything to the president whatever goes wrong with the opposition, when not with “the markets”, the International Monetary Fund or “the world”, as Cristina didin the vain hope that, by the art of birlibirloque, the economy will soon begin to grow without being forced to take any unpleasant measures.
All the “orthodox” economists, and some who are proud of their own “heterodoxy” but do not want to lose the respect of their colleagues, take it for granted that, without some very structural reforms, the Argentine economy will continue to sink and that, with each passing day, the possibility of that he recovers in time to spare the bulk of the population a fate comparable to that suffered by Venezuelans. Does Batakis share your opinion? It would seem that, like so many other Kirchnerists, among them the maximum leader of the sect, he has endorsed the conviction that the economic should always be subordinated to the political, that is, that basically it is a matter of will and that as long as If the government persists in the course set by the exegetes of the Patria Institute, everything will turn out well. In other words, she could match Andres “the Raven” Larroque when he says that “the moderate phase is exhausted”, that is, that in his opinion what the country needs is an overdose of Kirchnerism. If so, the economy, and the nearly 50 million people who depend on its support, are in for some wild months ahead that could well end in colossal disaster.
Be that as it may, Guzmán’s flightwho understood that it would not be worth his while to continue enduring the malicious criticism of the Kirchnerists and that therefore it would be convenient for him to abandon the government to its fate before he was formally fired, has been attributed to pressure from Cristina, who in such a way he had the pleasure of putting the despised back in his place albert. Does all this mean that one fine day Alberto himself, whose current situation closely resembles that of Isabelita Perón in the weeks preceding the military coup, could resign in an equally untimely manner? Maybe not, that the man has already resigned himself to fulfilling a role that others would find unbearably humiliating, but few would be willing to bet much that he wanted to continue being a puppet president until the end of next year.
what you want most Cristina is power without responsibility, This is why I would prefer Alberto to remain where he is, since if he decided to throw in the towel prematurely, he would have to return to the Casa Rosada and the fifth of Olivos just when the country was overwhelmed by a very serious political-economic crisis. If she were to refuse to do so, she would risk Massa, who has an expected place in the line of succession, seizing an opportunity she would find irresistible, which for her would be an alarming development.
Although I’m sure he loves it Christina manipulating the government that she assembled through Alberto, surrounding the few faithful officials that remain with Kirchnerists who make their lives impossible, she would not like at all that the majority believed her guilty of the havoc that, due to her almost daily intervention, keep provoking. In her particular universe, everything bad is due to Mauricio Macri and, of course, Albertoand all the good, or at least the hope that something positive will appear in the coming months, is due to your own generosity and wisdom.
Upon learning of Guzmán’s departure, Massa was proposed to replace him provided that he gave him control of the entire economic area, in addition to the head of the Cabinet, which, given the circumstances, was reasonable, but, according to what is said, Alberto found such conditions excessive and, In any case, he will not have wanted to anger Cristina, who knows very well that, from his point of view, the man from Tigre is a dangerous subject. Massa, then, will have to wait for the crisis to become so brutal that he feels in a position to make Albert and Christina An offer they can’t refuse. By the way, he does not lack confidence in his own abilities -it is evident that he considers himself the only one who can be rescued from an official cast whose other members stand out for their mediocrity- and he believes that, sooner or later, providence will summon him to save Argentina of the not-so-good fate that, if he continues along the path outlined by the Kirchnerists, awaits him in the not-too-distant future.
