Alberto Fernández shortens European tour, adds Martín Guzmán to the delegation and will visit the Pope

Provided that the figures of the coronavirus pandemic are unleashed and cause him to change his plans, the president Alberto Fernandez he is already preparing his first trip of the year abroad for next Monday. Tour roadmap shortened to five days and two destinations: France, with interview with Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron, and Italy and the Vatican, where the president will meet again with Pope Francis, according to official sources.

Immersed in the dispute with his Under-Secretary for Energy, Federico basualdo, a fight that will largely define his fate in government, Fernández adds the Minister of the Economy to the delegation Martin Guzman.

“Small tour, small delegation”, they defined THE NATION of the government on the President’s trip, details of which they jealously reserve near Fernández.

Until yesterday at least, the same trip was underway, we will see, because “the hearings can be postponed, if the business explodes, the trip is not made”, according to spokespersons for the president. In addition to Guzmán, the chancellor Felipe Solá and the presidential spokesperson Juan Pablo Biondi would be part of the official delegation, while the commitments already made in Spain were postponed (a meeting was scheduled alone with the socialist president Pedro Sanchez) and Portugal.

The personal encounter with him dad Francisco, expected in principle for next Thursday as planned by the site DiscoveryIt will be the second to date in his tenure and the first since the pandemic hit the country. The President likes to mention the Pope in his speeches and approves his request for the “equitable” distribution of the vaccine.

Ten days ago, the Pope demanded that this distribution “not be based on purely economic criteria, but taking into account the needs of all, in particular the most vulnerable and the most deprived”, wrote the Supreme Pontiff, who met Guzmán a few years ago. two weeks in the Vatican, as part of the Minister’s tour of European Union countries seeking support in negotiations with the IMF. The Pope also provided indirect support for Argentina’s position at the recent Ibero-American summit, when he called for “reforming the debt architecture” of poor countries.

The President attaches essential importance to his relationship with the Pope, with whom he shared the Climate Change Summit a few days ago. According to official sources, the relationship is fluid, beyond Fernández’s continued support for the decriminalization of abortion, one of his election promises made by Congress in the dying days of last year. He maintains, in any case, a close personal bond, far from the cold relationship that united the Argentine Pope and the local Church to his predecessor, Mauricio macri, as evidenced by various paragraphs of the book First Time, which the former president wrote about his time in the Casa Rosada administration.

In addition to seeing the Pope, Fernández plans to meet the Italian Prime Minister on the same day, Mario Draghi and President Sergio Mattarella, before his return home, scheduled for Friday 14 of the current month.

Regarding the Wednesday 13 meeting with Macron, whom Fernández also saw in February 2020 during his European tour, the question of Argentina’s debt and economy will be central issues. A year after this visit to Paris, Fernández thanked his French counterpart by teleconference for the “fundamental” support that this European nation has given Argentina to reach an agreement with private creditors, an achievement that has propelled Guzmán to the top. for the consideration of the government.

At the same virtual meeting, Macron gave initial approval to negotiations with the IMF, another of the central objectives of the presidential tour. The $ 2.4 billion the country is expected to make to the Paris Club before the end of the month will fly over the meeting, and that within the government is a matter of discussion.