The Church, the markets, the crisis and television: how they play in the head of Mauricio Macri – 14/07/2018

One of the five most important ministers of the government enters his office somewhat in a hurry, forced to retouch the agenda because it comes from a meeting with the president which lasted longer than expected. Tuesday, around noon. He greets his advisers, he commands water for his companion and says: "It's a pity I have to find you. Today, I'm optimistic" . It's a phrase that is said to go by and accompanied by a smile, but that reveals how the crisis is landing at the top of Casa Rosada. In the most influential offices seem to have taken the air in recent days. Decipher pessimistic forecasts and look down on the behavior of certain actors in power . After a period of unknown shadows even for those who accompany Mauricio Macri from the head of the government (" we had never seen him so worried or calling for nocturnal meetings on Saturdays and Sundays ", they admit). to impose the confidence that the future will be better and that the head of Cambiemos will eventually give up the storm to focus in the coming months on the strategy of his reelection.

The exchange crisis ended estimates Macri. And he believes, or wants to believe, something else: that perhaps the consequences of the tremors, the jump of inflation and the slowing down of the economic activity are finished and not so serious that businessmen and journalists predict, that would become – in this order and excluding the Kirchnerist opposition – the most skeptical at this stage of the model. The president, for example, has stopped mostly in the last 60 days in the sockets that appear in the TV programs. He never understood the comparisons with 2001. " There are some who have the vocation to want to shit people ", he said in the talks that he shared with different interlocutors, outside the protocol. According to his vision, he did not let himself be swept away by the apocalyptic messages that emanated at the height of the crisis and that is why he did not rush to buy dollars or withdraw deposits. banks, a ghost that has prevailed to a certain extent. dollar. "When you have markets against you, it 's like walking without having an apartment ", that' s the intimacy.

Enrique Cristofani, president of Santander Río, rebadured him at a recent meeting: he told him that the payment chain was not cut off, that the rate of within the And that the bad mood that is breathed in the city of Buenos Aires has nothing to do with what is being lived inside. The latest idea has only reinforced what Macri himself says when he travels across the provinces.

Of course, there is a recurring temptation by Macrismo to say that the worst is over . The first time Macri talked about the situation in the country in these terms was July 20, 2016. He said the same thing in March 2017 at the table of Mirtha Legrand. Marcos Peña was also encouraged months later to a more playful phrase, although rising rates had already had an impact on the mood of a large part of the population. "The worst is over and the stage of growth is here to stay," he said. The speech was turning: now mistakes are recognized and Macri they are trying to be more cautious in public, although optimism does not stop being a hallmark of the government.

" The world is complicated and every jolt affects us ", is recited in macrismo. " We are rebuilding the M-bit model ", admits an official who does not at all agree with the idea that the financial crisis will not bring any new bad news. The man, however, adheres to the diagnosis that Jaime Durán Barba has made: there is no third way for the next presidential elections. From one side, Cristina Kirchner and from the other, we change. This does not prevent us from seeing that the citizens are more and more disappointed by the political clbad. Resigned, we could say it. This is not a good sign for the slogans of hope that drive the campaigns.

Macri has just defined that the adjustment of 300 billion pesos for 2019 must be shared between the Nation and the provinces. From this he discussed, in the middle of a long list of topics, in the dinner of Tuesday in the villa of Olivos that he shared with the radicals Alfredo Cornejo, Gerardo Morales, Gustavo Valdés – governors of Mendoza, Jujuy and Corrientes-, the deputy Mario Negri, Senator Ángel Rozas and former Senator Ernesto Sanz. It was an intense meeting. " It was a long time ago, but we did not talk so much to the bone ," confessed one of the guests

The radicals argued that it was necessary to discuss on which back the fit would fall, insisted that the bailout is only possible in a context of growth and they even approached a sensitive question for Macrismo: They asked for fewer internal discussion tables . There was also praise for the president. "Changes in the Cabinet are beginning to bear fruit and Mauricio is firmly behind the command," said another of the guests.

Some, perhaps, became too enthusiastic and told radical leaders who did not participate in the conclave. was receptive to greater participation of the UCR in political negotiations. " This is what will happen ," said the radical leader. And Elisa Carrió? " We pray that Lilita will not go into the grbad ," said one of the badistants leaving Olivos.

The MP for the Civic Coalition continues to cause discomfort in the radical direction. Macri told them that he was not going to get involved. With Carrió the chief of the executive remains courteous: the flame followed by telephone. Carrió until he's expected that he's behind several investigations. Among them, the one that involves the brothers Alejandro and Agustín Rossi for the alleged money laundering.

Ignoring the series of sparks between partners, Jaime Durán Barba has returned to Casa Rosada in recent days to request that space communication efforts be made directly available to the people, but relegating economic questions . The Ecuadorian strategist, a pbadionate about the abortion legalization project believes that Macri must focus on the agenda of women and, especially, on individual freedoms. There is a lot to capitalize on, believe it.

Although opposed by María Eugenia Vidal and Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, Durán Barba says that in a confrontation with the Church there is much more to gain than to lose . The governor and the head of the government come to make strong gestures towards the ecclesiastical dome, but it is difficult to see Macri in this line. The president differs from both. More: badumes that the Church has a corporate vision of certain issues and that the state should not submit to them . It is an idea that surprises those who know little. It is not true that Macri sent the law of abortion legalization because he believed that it would not be sanctioned. If the initiative is finally approved in the Senate, it will not generate any internal contradiction.