“I want a tweet to come out of the official account of the Chamber of Deputiesto whom I am going to retweet later, let him say the next day Manzur to present the report of the Chief of Cabinet”. At this level of detail it was Sergio Massa last Wednesday, July 27, when the rumors about his landing on the Ministry of Economy They had reached their peak. True to his style, she intended to convey a message, but she didn’t mean it directly: John Louis Manzur he will continue to be chief of staff.
Why did you emphasize Manzur? At that time, the rumor of Economy Minister Massa was added that the governor of Chaco Jorge “Coqui” Capitanich could be the chief of staff. Massa did not want that unexpected company and besides, he already knew that his entry into the Cabinet would not be via the Headquarters, but the Ministry of Economy.
On the afternoon of Thursday the 28th, the panorama became clearer: Massa will be a kind of superminister who will have the areas of Economy, Production and Agriculture. The last minister who had this triple function was Martin LousteauBut it only lasted four months. The best precedent is Robert Lavagnawhich lasted three and a half years. This is the mirror in which Massa looks at himself. The difference is that the Tigrense will have only “nine months”, as his own clarify, to generate some kind of expectation for the 2023 elections. In May the electoral wheel will begin to turn and there will be no more time for management. Only one thing bothers him. when he resigned Martín Guzmán y Massa offered Marco Lavagna Being Minister of Economy, accompanying him in his possible landing in the Cabinet at that time, his collaborator replied that he preferred to stay away from the Ministry because his father had told him that the last chance for the Government to recover had been lost three months ago. That is to say that an experienced man like Lavagna does not see opportunities for improvement for this administration. But Massa has faith.
The decision to add the Tigrense to the Cabinet was made on Saturday 23 at the meal they shared Alberto Fernandez and Cristina Kirchner. As of Monday the 25th, work began on the design of the landing: how, when and with whom it would be done. The options were discussed between the Minister of the Interior Eduardo “Wado” DePedro, the chief adviser Juan Manuel Olmos and Massa himself. It was a government secret that hardly suffered cracks until Wednesday night, the 27th, when the decision to name him Economy Minister was leaked in the Clarín newspaper. The main suspicion of the leak falls on Manzur, who, excited for having survived the scythe, would have talked too much with a journalist. On Tuesday, the man from Tucuman was evicted and was seen outside the Cabinet. On Wednesday he regained his color. suspicions.
Of the boxes that were released for Massa to complete with his people, at the close of this edition, the Production Secretary was at his disposal, because Daniel Scioli will return to the Brazilian embassy in the doldrums; the Ministry of Agriculture, because Julián Domínguez resigned; and the Secretaries of Treasury and Finance, because the team of Silvina Batakis was left in doubt after the transfer of the now former minister to Banco Nación. Massa will not be able to occupy the locker of the AFIP because Cristina Kirchner already colonized it with Carlos Castagnetto. In any case, there you have, at Customs, Guillermo Michel. Mercedes Marco Del Pont was transferred to the Secretariat for Strategic Affairs, which until Thursday was occupied by Gustavo Beliz.
The departures of Beliz and Scioli are victories for Massa because he had a strong confrontation with both officials. With Beliz he never had chemistry and with Scioli the link was broken on June 22, 2013. That day the lists for the legislative elections of that year closed and Scioli flirted with Massa to abandon Kirchnerism. At the last minute, the former motonaut called him on the phone and got off, and Massa never forgave the snub.
the previous
The ambition to become a savior is constant. Before his current landing in Economy, Massa had other important attempts that came to nothing. The first was when the PASO of 2021 were lost and Juan Manzur replaced Santiago Cafiero as Chief of Staff, then when Matías Kulfas resigned, and finally, when Guzmán left. In all three instances, Massa sounded like a superminister, but exercising his power from the Chief of Staff. In all those cases, he was halfway there. What changed now? In those different moments, the only one who pushed the situation was Massa. Albert and Christina they had their qualms. This time, urged by the severe exchange rate run, the President and the Vice President agreed to give the green light to the Tigrense, who carried out a strong media lobby –including an operational clamor from friendly governors– to reach the Government.
Expectation
Massa wanted to wait for the weekend to announce his landing and have a triumphant exit from the Chamber of Deputies, but the President could not continue stretching the times, so he decided to rush the changes to Thursday the 28th. The exchange rate run is doing a lot damage to the administration of the Front of All.
In the Government there is talk of a “Massa effect”. You can already glimpse a better treatment of the markets to the brand new minister -especially in comparison with the outgoing Batakis-, but it is also true that these days there has been a general rise in the markets and Argentina is at historic lows in its prices, so the only way for stocks to move is up. Massa adds, but it is not the only thing, nor the most important, because he has not yet presented any economic program.
He is a friend of businessmen, has good connections in the United States and also has a friendly link with the most important media in the country. But his main problem remains the same: his bad image, which exceeds 60 percent according to some measurements and is associated with the derogatory nickname of “Ventajita” that in recent years the macrismo hung on him, and that, with the inventiveness of Jaime Durán Barba portrayed him as an unscrupulous politician capable of betraying his peers. “Would someone buy you a used car?”, the former Ecuadorian guru of the PRO came to goad him.
now massa He has a chance to redeem himself. It is played all or nothing. If things work out for him, he will become a savior with the luster of a presidential candidate. If not, it will end up being just a useless placebo.
