What is the limit between the private life of a politician and the public? How far does one influence the other? How far do you explain? These questions are part of a historical debate between journalists and analysts. Opinions do not always coincide and there was never consensus about this long discussion. Perhaps one of the many novelties that Javier Milei came to bring is also in this field. It is that if the version that runs in the government is true, the advanced of the ruling against Clarín would be motivated by a very own aspect of the president’s personality: its unstoppable anger, a top of instability that characterizes it since childhood and that when it starts it takes place to everything it finds.
According to the story made by one of the men now in charge of torpedoing the merger between Telecom and Telefónica, the company to which the group bought -at least for now -, on the morning of Monday, February 24, the phone sounded. It was Santiago Caputo. On the other side of the line, the off -road advisor notified him that hostilities against Héctor Magnetto had to begin, since “Javier had been heated.” Hours later, the self -denominated “Kremlin Magician” posted an image in his parallel account in “X” with the “Clarín lies” flag.
The person he had called was not encouraged to ask the reasons behind the libertarian’s fury. Although then, as the contest advanced, he learned that, beyond the disgust of Milei with Clarín, he had been growing for a long time, there were two specific facts that would have unleashed the scandal: one would be a note from Marcelo Bonelli, a journalist to which the president has as one of his favorite whites, and a Karina Milei a photo that had published the newspaper on Sunday 16, in a proselytizing tour of the Federal Capital two days after the cryptogate, in which she was looked little graceful. And that, it seems, it was enough for Milei to put in check the largest monetary operation that is given in the country since he sits in the Rivadavia armchair, of $ 1245 million.
The narrative sounds, a priori, crazy. Can anyone depend 45 million Argentines could hinder a delicate financial maneuver, in which hundreds of works are played, for something similar to a whim? Are you willing to enter a war in an election year with a powerful media group (and therefore political) by a critical note and a dismembered photo?
The ruling would respond sharply not. I would say that, as he detailed in a statement, his misgivings about this novelty in the world of telecommunications are born that, if the merger effectively happened, “it would imply a 61% concentration for the mobile phone market, 69% for fixed telephony; and, with respect to the residential internet service, in some areas of the country the concentration could reach 80%.” What is said, in Creole, a monopoly, those that local legislation prevents and that Milei before defended by cape and sword.
Although it sounds unreal, this medium knows in its own flesh as far as the tension can climb with this government if the president wants it. In April of last year he published a lid where he revealed that in the fifth of Olivos there are only four dogs (and that the fifth with which the libertarian says playing every day exists only in his imagination). That information unleashed, as a very high national official who tried to avoid publication, a “war” from the government said. Today profile has four judgments with the administration for different types of threats and discrimination.
It is likely that, as always happens in this country of the end of the world, there is a bit of truth in all versions. That Milei is angry at a minor issue, that Clarín is before the succulent possibility of having a more than leading place in the world of telecommunications, and that all this is only the surface of a more complex link between a government and the main media group of the country.
Business
That Telefónica, a company that quotes in the New York Stock Exchange and whose main shareholder is the Spanish State, wanted to leave the country for a long time was Vox Populi in the business world. In tune with something that has been happening after the pandemic worldwide, the large multinationals are withdrawing from countries still on development to concentrate their portfolio in a few places -in Argentina, in recent years, it occurred with Procter & Gamble, Nike and Zara, for only nameing some relevant brands. These companies often sell their assets to a local buyer. It was the case of Telefónica. Since 2019 he got rid of the bulk of his subsidiaries in Latin America -while he seeks to concentrate in Spain, Germany, Brazil and the United Kingdom -, within a telecommunications business that is increasingly losing more weight in the face of the advance of technology.
The Telecom Group, Holding Entrepreneur that belongs to 40% to the Fintech fund, of Mexican David Martínez, in another 40% to the Clarín group, through Cablevisión Holding, plus 11% that controls the state through the Sustainability Guarantee Fund (FGS) of the ANSES, was made with Telefónica. That happened after disbursement $ 1245 million, thanks to a complex engineering that included Fination of the BBVA, Santander, ICBC and the Deutsche Bank (according to Profile, 90% of the amount of the purchase came from this operation).
This was how this was created that the government suspects being a monopoly. According to the data of the Conicet Agustín Espada researcher, Telefónica has 2,600,000 customers in fixed telephony (38% of the market); 16,600,000 mobile telephone lines (27% of the market); and 1,300,000 broadband customers to the home (12% of the market), which would be added to those of Telecom: 2,900,000 fixed telephone lines (42% of the market); 21 million mobile telephone lines (33.6% of the market); 3,900,000 internet customers to the home (36% of the market); and 3,300,000 pay customers (37% of the market).
Arguments
Telecom is covered by two factors to ensure that, contrary to what the government supports, this emporium would not be illegal: the presence of its competitor, of course (although it has 39% of the mobile phone market has no insertion in the other telecommunications items) and in the growth of Elon Musk, whom the president calls his friend. It is that Starlink, his satellite internet company, has already started operating in the country, reaching areas already remote a cheaper price. However, for now its insertion is more than marginal.
Telecom said that thanks to this purchase you can make investments to improve your fiber optic network and advance your 5G network. That is the official version. Below, in the business world there are others. One is that the great interest of Héctor Magnetto was not to see Claro, its competitor, or see another in this world, especially if it was one that had any link with the government, such as the case of José Luis Manzano or the Werthein group. In the Run Run Empresarial, they swear that the media tsar made the purchase without making the “Due Diligence”, as is known in this type of business to the operation by which all the assets of a company are reviewed before acquiring it. Will it be so? Were the times urged? This seems true for the case of Telefónica. It is that one of the actors that remained in the race, that still boil, swears that the Spaniards somehow tilted the court towards the group. Is it in the back that “the great Argentine newspaper” has, since they sensed that a political and legal war could be unleashed? The truth is that Telefónica, after sale, closed his adventure in Argentina. Everything that happens from now on will be a problem of its new owners.
Future
“There is order to die and work quickly,” government technicians say that they now have to carry out the battle, who respond to Caputo orders. The matter passed to the National Competition Commission Commission (CNCD) – whose titular, Alexis Pirchio, resigned on March 15, in full contest – and the National Communications Entity (ENACOM). The bracelet will last at least six months, the deadline that the Government put to evaluate the legality of the merger, although all the parties involved expect to stretch more. From Telecom they are optimistic, and there is talk of the recent acquisition of the ESPN sports channel by Disney (which already had the three Fox Sports signs) in 2020 as an antecedent in this regard.
In the government, even when they show the knife between the teeth, they do not seem too optimistic. They say that, in the best case, after the established term, they have two plays. One is that ENACOM forces Telecom to return some part of the “radio spectrum” -the set of frequencies that makes it work that telecommunications work. This would happen without the company receiving any victims, in addition to losing part of the market. Another is that the CNCD force aa telecom to release some market area. In any case, it would be a not too serious defeat for the group.
It is striking, because it would almost seem that, while showing the teeth, the government would be looking to agree. Will it be part of a tactic? Is there any legal loom to prevent a company from concentrating such a large portion of the market? The end for now remains open, especially for a factor: Javier Milei is always difficult to foresee.
Maze
“They are part of the caste and are affected, they are also very annoying to have lost official guideline. They are operating to full, they see at risk the continuity of their businesses.” The phrase is from Javier Milei, and precedes this climb with Clarín. It is from March 2024, when his government was just starting. Since then he crossed them several times, in notes and in the networks. On March 2 of this year he took another step. He published a tweet entitled “Clarín, the great Argentine scam” where he accuses them of “hosting with lies” to the government because they want to have an “abuse in a dominant position in the world of telecommunications.” The president also said that “they were accustomed” to acting like this, and charged with name and surname against Magnetto. This publication remains in its account until the closing of this edition, in what is the second time that a tweet leaves – the first had been promoting $ Libra – since it is in office.
All this happens despite the fact that the group’s editorial line has been, at least, friendly. That is why – because Milei always defended the monopolies, even as head of the State – is that he is striking to have Clarín as an enemy. Perhaps there is something more in the background: the libertarian, driven by the conviction of those who believe he is literally chosen by God, can only think of journalism as a repeater of his ideas and arguments, and does not even tolerate the slightest criticism of the press. Maybe there is something more background: the intricate game of politics and businesses in an electoral year. Anyway, that bracelet is delicate. And Milei is not characterized by his patience.
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