Miguel Lifschitz: "If Lavagna does not show up, the country goes to the …"

Miguel Lifschitz (63) Dressing sitting on the deck chair as we prepare for the interview. We are on the Balneario La Florida beach, Rosario, on the Paraná river side. The governor is wearing a blue jacket, a blue shirt, black suit pants and shoes of the same color. Obviously, he was not prepared for the occasion. "Are you cold?" I ask him. "The truth is I'm pissed off cold", the governor throws me.

Rosario breathes the electoral climate. The entire city is lined with posters of leaders who introduce themselves. On Sunday April 28th, PASO will take place in Santa Fe. Lifschitz is in the countryside. At the provincial level, he works hard for the former governor Antonio Bonfatti and current leadership candidate in Santa Fe for the Progressive Civic and Social Front, getting a good result. And at the national level, being one of the main owners of Roberto Lavagna.

He tells me that If the former Minister of Economy does not show up, he sees the future of Argentina even more complicated than this difficult present indicates.

Before the governor falls or catches a cold because of the place we mentioned, we had better start with the questionnaire.

– Let's go with our micro section "Knowing the Socialists". If you had to go out with someone to bad, who would you choose? A socialist, a Peronist, a radical or a PRO?

-A peronist. They are a little more descendant, is not it?

Let's say they like to run a little more limit, right?

– Take more risks, yes.

-The species with the greatest danger of extinction of the Natural Park of the Conservation of Species of Progressism here in Santa Fe are those of progressive radicals? Are progressive radicals like pandas?

– (laughs) There is little left. But I hope that radicalism will come back on the path that marked it Raúl Alfonsín 35 years ago, he will return to the place of progressivism, the center-left democratic.

– Do they occupy progressive radicals?

– Never forget to have a man and a woman minimum …

-So they breed.

As the organizer of the Congress of Language in 2004, mayor of the city of Rosario, you will remember a memorable exhibition of Roberto Fontanarrosa, in which he justified the bad words, including "shit". May I ask you to continue the legacy of the great Negro and, as the highest political authority in Santa Fe, to say with force and pride the word shit?

-Yes, we wind a little. Because the truth is that there is so much shit that is worth being told sometimes.

-I badyzed what words you used the most: Lavagna, governability, basic agreements, liberalism, Lavagna, crack, polarization break, Lavagna, sustained growth, alternative project, Lavagna. You say a lot, Lavagna.

Yes The other day, I liked a phrase that said "Argentina is dirty, Roberto La-vagna".

-C & # 39; is the first time I hear a socialist making a joke …

– (laughs) There are some who are in a good mood.

– Are you Guillermo Cóppola from Lavagna? You are like the representative who says "here is my friend Robertito, how are you, I present them"?

– For me more than Cóppola, I would like to be technical director. I would like to be Marcelo Bielsa de Lavagna … Although he has not won so many championships Marcelo Bielsa.

-I'll ask you for a Lifschitz for the kids. You must explain what I will ask the little boys and girls of six years. How does socialism, as a progressive force, accompany Lavagna when the main trade unionist who supports him is Luis Barrionuevo?

-When you want to go to another place, you get on a bus that takes you to the destination where you want to go, and no matter who sits back, who sits next. The important thing is that the group go where I want to go, and that the driver is more or less good, will not fall on the road. That's why we chose Lavagna.

-Where would you like to see Marcelo Tinelli in 2020, saying "Good evening America" ​​or saying "Hello neighbors of the province of Buenos Aires".

– I believe that today Tinelli plays a very important role as a communicator. He is probably one of the people with the most influence on the Argentine public opinion. I think this role, if it is well used, can be very important for the present and the next years in Argentina.

-You prefer it in "Goodnight America" ​​then, it became clear to me. From the illegal spy seizure scandal, made visible by the case of Marcelo D'Alessio, do you take care of what you say in the phone calls?

-It is a risk that is run but no, the truth is that I do not take care of myself.

-It is a fact that we give to the AFI so …

-Yes, you must have it already. (To laugh)

-I followed you on Instagram. You follow 190 people, you follow Mauricio Macri but you do not follow CFK. A preference?

– No, for the moment, it's the president. CFK, we already know it, always says the same thing, it's not surprising. Macri too.

-You follow Juan Manuel Urtubey but do not follow Sergio Mbada, bad atmosphere with Mbada?

-No, I have good relations with Sergio and with Urtubey too.

-I found a photo of you sitting in a clbadroom surrounded by students. The students look at you as if to say, "Who is this man who is here purging himself?"

-I tell you an anecdote about this photo. A few years ago, I went to a school here in Rosario and I entered college unexpectedly. There were all the boys and I was approached by a child of six or seven years old. He stands in front of me, looks down on me and says, "Sir, are you Sarmiento?"

– Declare that you said yes!

-No, I told him that Sarmiento was in the books.

– You stole the illusion of a child. There you have to say "yes, I am Sarmiento."

-I, I stayed, I stayed.

-What is your top 5 Argentine presidents of all time?

-Oh, how hard it is. The one I love most is the nineteenth century, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento.

-Ah, you left until the 19th century …

-And good. Twentieth century, I would say the second Yrigoyen, the third Peron, the fourth Frondizi and the fifth Alfonsin.

-And your top 5 presidents in the history of Latin America?

-I will choose the contemporaries, who are the ones I met. First Ricardo Lagos (Chile), second Tabaré Vázquez (Uruguay), third Michelle Bachelet (Chile), fourth Jose "Pepe" Mujica (Uruguay) and fifth Evo Morales (Bolivia).

-I will ask you the emoji question, you must answer only with emoji, you can not use any word. If Roberto Lavagna does not finally run for the presidency, which candidate will you support?

– (laughs) That's fine. It's like a surprise, everything goes wrong and the ambulance.

-The country is going to shit.