“You play as you live.” The phrase is repeated in more than one office in times of direct confrontation within the ruling coalition of the Frente de Todos, in a conflict that has escalated since last Wednesday and that threatens to definitively break the weakened coexistence within the Government among most of the officials who report to President Alberto Fernández and certain sectors within the same structure that respond directly to Vice President Cristina Kirchner.
Booming an internal conflict that has been raising the tone since the middle of last year, which fell from grace this time is Martín Guzmán, the Minister of Economy, perhaps the most well-known face of the cabinet and who until now had remained on the sidelines of the power dispute.
On Friday morning, in the middle of a discussion about how and in what way the 9% increase in electricity rates would be enabled, Guzmán asked the undersecretary of electrical energy Federico Basualdo to resign, in charge of the area. The minister had agreed on the measure with the President and with the Chief of Cabinet Santiago Cafiero and transmitted it to the Secretary of Energy, and Basualdo’s superior, Darío Martínez.
The news fell very badly not only in Basualdo, but in the main referents of the Patria Institute and La Cámpora, a group led by deputy Máximo Kirchner and whom the official represents as main reference in the sector, together with Federico Bernal, the head of Enargas.
“Basualdo does not leave, there is no request to resign, he is still in his position”, was the message that was downloaded from hard Kirchnerism in the afternoon of the volcanic Friday. The request for resignation had existed, executive sources confirmed to Clarion, and Guzmán’s decision, which considers Basualdo “an official who does not work”, had had the prior endorsement of Fernández, who even after K’s energetic denial, kept his word to the minister and gave guarantees on the departure of the official for later. He did not like, however, that Guzmán’s decision was made public by the media..
On Saturday the tension continued to escalate, as well as the unshakable stance of Kirchnerism to defend its soldier in the post tooth and nail. “It’s a fight between an elephant and an ant. Who wins that fight? The elephant. Basualdo stays”, was the particular comparison that a source consulted by this means made regarding how the story will continue.
The conviction of Kirchnerism is based on different arguments. First, They do not hesitate to recognize Cristina’s unconditional support for a loyal official. For Vice, energy is one of her fetish themes.
Later, from the Cámpora they assure that Guzmán’s decision to move forward with a segmented rate system In the electricity sector it is not new and that since Kirchnerism was carried out in 2012, in the second term of Cristina Kirchner. And they assure that Basualdo presented that same plan four months ago and it was never signed at the Cabinet Headquarters, since Guzmán intended to carry out a rate increase of around 30% during 2021. “Now there will be only one, this 9%,” K sources assure, who rule out that it is apply another rise later.
The main complaint of hard Kirchnerism points to some lack of Guzmán codes when making the decision. “He does not have a street, he comes from another field, academic, and he was out of the country for a long time”, is the very critical summary made by the minister. However, they maintain that the lack of an interlocutor in the sector transcends him. The dialogue between Kirchnerism and Matías Kulfas when Energía was under the orbit of the Ministry of Productive Development was not the best either, they acknowledge.
In the middle of the bid is Darío Martínez, the Secretary of Energy that Kirchnerism promoted in August of last year, with a direct link with Máximo due to his time as a deputy, but who in recent months had aligned himself with Guzmán especially in relation to the discussion about tariffs.
“Everything is fine with Darío, it has nothing to do with it,” is the comment that comes down from La Cámpora. However, indoors the secretary is criticized, who claims to be a candidate for governor of Neuquén in 2023, try to play by the “wide avenue of the middle”. “There is no such thing, it is from one side or the other”, it is made clear.
On the side of Guzman, on Saturday we opted for the “silenzio stampa”. How the minister will take the refusal of Basualdo and his shock group to accept his decision and retire from office is the great unknown in this tense conflict that promises to add new chapters day by day.
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source https://pledgetimes.com/with-the-support-of-cristina-kirchner-the-official-who-wants-to-dismiss-martin-guzman-resists-in-his-position/
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