Kirchnerism and the IMF: the final reason for the help of the body in Macri

However, a specific problem has determined that this position will begin to thaw until it accepts, with limitations, the use of the currency of the body to contain the dollar. Lipton did not accept the alternative, but opted to retire and be personally Lagarde who badumed responsibility before the agency's board of directors, in the the case where the help does not give results and that the reserve program ends badly. Argentina could only get final approval in this attitude, which was finally defined in last weekend's negotiations.

The factor that determined this change of position is curiously from outside the government. The ambbadadors that the IMF maintains as contacts within Kirchnerism have badumed that the official position of the main opposition front was to accept as a state act the signing of the agreement with the agency and the country, but call quickly if successful. elections, a deep renegotiation of the pending position. But, contrary to what the organization badumes, Kirchnerism will require flexibility in signing and a general improvement in the conditions set. The IMF knows that the deal needs to be negotiated. The head of the Argentine file, the Italian Roberto Cardarelli, knows from the first day that the suspension, in fixed terms, is impossible to fulfill in the medium or long term and that it is necessary to discuss an extension of the deadline. Cardarelli has always known that the current one is a dollar stabilization deal (not very successful so far), but that by 2020 it needs to be changed to adopt the Extended Facility modality. The conditions would be much more advantageous for the country, going from four to nine or ten years and at a rate of interest lower than 4% per year (a Utopia for Argentina of more than 900 risk points). The country could even negotiate an increase of some 10 billion US dollars, thanks to which the obligations of payment of the debt of 2020 and 2021 would already be spared. However, the IMF's demands to the government to renegotiate the deal would be severe. The organization, yes or yes, would ask for two reforms that can not be implemented according to its vision: work and social security. It is not in vain that the government wants the opposition to sign two of the 10 points mentioned in its governance agreement presented to the company last Thursday. This, in addition to continuing the execution of the zero deficit plan that was closed in the current stand-by, and which includes a slight surplus for 2020.

Kirchnerism thinks of something else and so it did in public and in private. Although supporters of Cristina de Kirchner recognize the signing of the agreement with the IMF as a state decision, they are not willing to maintain agreement in the current terms. According to Máximo Kirchner said Thursday of last week, in a partisan act of the Faculty of Medicine, the IMF is not a priority for the Kirchner. Earlier, Axel Kicillof had badured a group of investment funds that he had received in his branch office of the Chamber of Deputies, that the IMF would be paid "as much as possible". Kirchner's latest Minister of Economy (who had direct access to Lagarde since his tenure as a civil servant) also made it clear that he did not want to negotiate a reform of the workforce or the retreats and that the discussions would be "difficult". In summary, he rejects the opponent's main reference to the proposal to move to an extended facility. And that, in any case, there will be a renegotiation of the conditions and possibilities of payment of the country, according to the considerations of Buenos Aires.

This position came to Lagarde's ears 10 days ago, and from that moment on, the IMF Managing Director decided that Mauricio Macri's government needed to be rescued once again, even destroying the ideology of the protection of the currency of the body as a flag. .