Alberto Fernández with PROFILE in Lisbon: “We have come to ratify our agreements with Europe”

“We have come to ratify our agreements with Europe so that they can accompany us in the development of Argentina”President Alberto Fernández told PROFILE in Lisbon the first stop on his European tour which will see him meet leaders from four countries.

Alberto Fernández began his visit to Portugal this Sunday, May 9 which ends on Monday with a meeting with the Portuguese Prime Minister, António Luís Santos da Costa. Later he will travel to Madrid, Paris, Rome and the Vatican, and next week there will be a virtual meeting with Merkel to complete the closure of European support in negotiations with the Fund and the Paris Club.

Shortly after noon this Sunday, the flight of Argentine airlines He landed in Lisbon, where the Argentine ambassador received him and a gray noon. At 5 p.m. local time, Fernández completed the first protocol activity of his trip, the visit to his Portuguese counterpart, Marcelo Rebelo Sousa, at the Belém Palace.

A new photo with Francisco and the public support of Europe

After reception, Portuguese President and Fernández met in a neighboring room. Then the ministers joined this meeting Martín Guzmán and Felipe Solá, in addition to the secretary general of the presidency Julio Vitobello.

The visit to Rebelo Sousa is formal in nature, since tomorrow, Monday, the two most important meetings for the Argentine delegation will take place in Lisbon. First, at 10:30 am, Minister Martín Guzmán will meet with his Portuguese counterpart, Joao Leao, seeking Portuguese support in negotiations with the IMF and the Paris Club. At noon, Fernández will participate in a lunch with the Prime Minister, Antonio Costa.

The President begins a tour in search of support to negotiate with the Fund

Portugal is temporarily chairing the European Union and at the Argentine Foreign Ministry, they will seek a statement that attempts to reconcile the positions of the controversial agreement between the two economic blocs, which the administration of Mauricio Macri had shown as an achievement of his administration. The San Martín Palace (Felipe Solá is part of the entourage) will also try to move forward on the issue of the Falklands, with the Brexit consummated. As a precedent, the report signed by Lisbon and Madrid at the last Ibero-American summit to support Argentina’s position stands out within the Argentine government.

The European tour will continue on Tuesday in Madrid, Wednesday in Paris and end Thursday in Rome and the Vatican. It will be during these bilateral meetings with the leaders of the three European powers, in addition to the photo with Pope Francis, that the Fernández government will try to push back the deadlines with the Paris Club and the International Monetary Fund.

Air and time. These are the objectives that the president has loaded in the suitcase for the presidential tour. Driven by the second wave of coronavirus, the struggle with the Court, economic problems and an indisputable home front in the ruling coalition with Kirchnerism, Fernández crossed the Atlantic in search of political recognition from various European leaders. He will try to show himself away from the image of a populist leader in front of businessmen and plant an image of harmony with Pope Francis in his second official photo as president.

The first president will try to gain time with his minister most questioned by the hard wing of Kirchnerism. Martín Guzmán has been preparing this trip for months in search of Support from European powers to postpone this year’s millionaire payments with the Paris Club and the International Monetary Fund.

In the presidential entourage, they try to protect the Minister of the Economy, after a hectic week. He accused the first blow of not forcing the departure of Under-Secretary for Energy, Federico Basualdo, with a solid bank from Vice-President Cristina Kirchner. He lost the fight for tariffs with Kirchnerism, although he did not miss the opportunity to pass their bill: “We have to be self-critical, because we have pro-rich subsidies,” said the minister on Friday.

In the limited delegation (which includes Foreign Minister Felipe Solá and Secretaries Gustavo Beliz and Julio Vitobello), they also do not give importance to the opinion that Senators K approved on Thursday so that the new funds that the Fund must disburse are intended for policies aimed at mitigating the effects of the pandemic and not the maturities of the debt, as Guzmán claims. The minister is firm, they say.

And they add that the “domestic” question does not influence at all in the negotiation with the creditors of the Fund and the Paris Club, who consider the minister as the only valid interlocutor in the open negotiations. “Here, geopolitics are one hundred percent,” said an official who boarded the Aerolineas Argentinas plane, speaking of the tour.

In terms of results, Fernández and Guzmán will seek with the leaders of Portugal, Spain, France and Italy to build a bridge that allows them to defer this year’s payments with the Paris Club (the 30 May, there is a maturity of $ 2.4 billion). ) and with the IMF ($ 1.9 billion to be paid in September). They mitigate any condition of the agreement.

The seminar in which Guzmán and the director of the Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, will coincide on Friday at the Vatican, is one of the key points for the economic team. As a backdrop, they cite another similar seminar in February 2020 on debt issues. This meeting between the minister and the strong woman of the body was at the heart of the conclusion with the private creditors.

The government will seek, once again, to use the nomination to profit from papal influence in debt negotiation.