Sergio Tomas Massa had to pick up the cell phone. It is true that they had not left him many other options. In an act in Morón before five thousand people, two days ago, Máximo Kirchner had reappeared in public after the failed assassination attempt on his mother, and had distributed darts everywhere. The surprise was that, for the first time since he was Minister of Economy, the criticism of the camperista leader also fell on the Tigrense. “The cereal companies brought us to our knees and we had to give them another dollar to liquidate,” he said, in a missile that altered the more than precarious peace that had existed in the Front of All since the former president of the Chamber of Deputies take on your new challenge. Days before, the vice president herself had published a tweet in which she spoke about the economy for the first time in months, making her concern public. That is why Massa had no choice but to talk to her son. Red phone.
The content of the call on Monday the 3rd is a secret kept under lock and key, a secrecy that both Máximo and Massa always imposed on the talks they had since they spoke to each other again, when 2017 was midway through and the Frente de Todos was still armed. far. But some fiber struck that laborious conversation. The next day, Andres Larroque, the general secretary of La Cámpora who does not move without the consent of Cristina or Máximo, came out to clarify in an interview that Massa “had the support to take the necessary measures” and that “everyone is pulling for the same place” . It seems that this is how the life of the minister here will be until, at least, next year’s elections: a constant tug-of-war with Kirchnerism. One step back, two steps forward?
Labyrinth. Massa was the first from the leadership of the ruling party to speak with Cristina. Quick of reflexes, he called her as soon as the assassination attempt was revealed, in the first of the two conversations they had on the night of Thursday, September 1st. The minister was surprised by the serenity with which the vice president spoke.
Almost a month later, the owner of the majority of the votes surprised Massa again. For the first time in a long time -in which she had dedicated herself exclusively to her legal mischief and then to the failed attack-, Cristina spoke again about the economy, at a time when inflation is still at extremely high levels and the recovery of the workers’ purchasing power seems like a dream. “We are facing a phenomenon of inflation by supply and not by demand. Food companies have increased their profit margins very strongly. The Ministry of Economy has worked hard, but a more precise and effective policy of intervention is necessary”, said the vice president in a tweet, which altered the mood. It seemed nothing compared to the darts that Kirchnerism sent to Martín Guzmán, but it was a sign that the summer of peace for Massa had come to an end.
However, the most striking thing about the short circuit was what happened on Wednesday, September 28, in the presentation that Massa made of the 2023 Budget that he seeks Congress to approve. First, because Gabriel Rubinstein, his deputy minister -whose appointment had raised dust in the K tribe due to his anti-Christian past-, seemed to answer Cristina when he gave a technical explanation to affirm that, contrary to what the deputy said, the economic problems were not they gave “for the companies”. “It is our responsibility to make this all better,” he said.
It was not the only thing that generated suspicions on that day. Massa said three times that he “felt that he was taking his last steps in politics”, a statement that is not usually heard from the mouth of any politician, much less from Tigre. Although some speculated that it was a message to Kirchnerism designed so that they do not pull the rope too much, soon the official radio corridor offered a new version: that the Tigrense, at least until the end of the year, does not want to raise waves about a possible candidacy for 2023, with which he never stops dreaming. In several statements in private meetings, in fact, Massa declared that he sees himself competing for that position, but in 2027. “Sergio is very alive. He knows that now he has to have a very low profile and work, raise the economy and nothing else. He is going to make statements like that to scare away ghosts”, says a deputy who knows him well. And he gives an example: since he took office as minister he still hasn’t given any interviews.
Future. The first day he entered his new office, Massa ordered the monitors that monitor the stock market price and the Central Bank’s reserves to be turned off live. Almost two months after his inauguration as minister, that situation remains the same, and with an addition: the Tigrense still does not use the desk where Martín Guzmán worked, and prefers a larger round table, which is opposite, which is always full Of papers.
There are the great challenges of an economy on the edge. Inflation in September is going to be high again, once again attacking the pockets of workers. Meanwhile, the reserves of the Central creak. The soybean dollar play, the one that made Máximo angry, has come to an end: now it is the corn liquidation season and it was not a good harvest. And then there is the IMF. The Fund has to approve the review for the last quarter of the year, an issue that has the entire ministry pending.
Massa moves along this fragile line. Kirchnerism – which celebrates as its own achievement the bonuses to formal and informal workers before the end of the year – has already warned that it will put pressure. It’s the thin red line.
