Francisco will receive Martín Guzmán today to discuss the current situation in the country and the world situation

Francisco played a key role in his appointment as Minister of the Economy and in designing a negotiation strategy with private creditors and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Martín Guzmán has intellectual respect for the Pope and asked him for an audience in Buenos Aires to discuss the situation in Argentina, the global scenario crossed by the pandemic and his fight with the IMF which is still resisting the very long-term refinancing of the debt of $ 44,000 million contracted by Mauricio Macri.

Yesterday they confirmed that today it will be received by Pope Francis at the Library of the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. He will be alone at 11 a.m. Rome time.

Guzmán is in Europe to strengthen the European Union’s support for the negotiation strategy with the IMF. In Berlin, he has already met Peter Altmaier – Minister of Economy and Energy – and Wolfgang Schmidt, Head of the Finance Portfolio. In both cases, on instructions from Chancellor Angela Merkel, they made themselves available to the Argentine government.

After completing his stage in Germany, the minister flew to Rome. In the Italian capital, he has a tight schedule that includes a meeting with Stefano Zamagni, head of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, a meeting with representatives of companies investing in Argentina, hosted by Ambassador Roberto Carles, and the official meeting with Daniele Franco, Italian Minister of the Economy, to advance negotiations with the IMF.

Guzmán has a roadmap for negotiating with the Fund which he designed with the approval of Alberto Fernández and the intellectual collaboration of Gustavo Béliz, Secretary for Strategic Affairs. This plan is based on three economic and political pillars:

1. Use special drawing rights (SDRs) to refinance capital maturities and as extraordinary support to support the economies in crisis of so-called medium-sized countries

2. Propose to the international community (G7 and European Union) a reformulation of the basic rules of the IMF when granting credits from the Extended and Stand-By Facility to debtor countries

3. Explain that the COVID-19 pandemic has placed the world in an institutional crisis similar to that experienced after WWII and that this would involve the launch of a so-called Bretton Woods II

The finance minister’s proposal has already been considered by the White House – in fact, it has approved that the SDR can be used to cancel IMF capital maturities – and is now being submitted to Germany, France, Spain and Italy for consideration. For this reason, Guzmán travels the main capitals of Europe while continuing his negotiations with the Managing Director of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, and her team assigned to Argentina.

The Pope supports Alberto Fernández’s negotiating strategy and trusts Guzmán’s efforts. Its role in this complex scenario is essential and silent. Francisco is a personal friend of United States President Joseph Biden, and a call from him in the White House can serve to unblock a negotiation that is ultimately geopolitical.

Francisco has already proven his influence in Washington when Barack Obama occupied the Oval Room: his participation was decisive in unfreezing diplomatic relations between the United States and the Communist regime in Cuba. And in fact, when the diplomatic deal was announced, Obama and Raúl Castro praised Francisco’s key role.

Guzmán will enter the Vatican Library today in his best dark costume. It will be 11 years old, and he will have the political privilege of being alone with Francisco, in such an institutional framework. The agenda is open, and they have trusted the Vatican, that the Pope is very interested in the difficult social and economic situation in Argentina, caused by the devastating effect of COVID-19.

In addition, the minister will describe how his negotiation with Georgieva – a friend of the two – is progressing, and will focus on the global agenda, an issue that had interested Francis since before his arrival at the Vatican. The Pope and Guzmán are still talking on the phone or writing emails. Tomorrow, tea in between, it will be face to face.

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