the health balance of the presidential tour

The possibility of go through Germany to visit Angela Merkel. But the restrictions imposed by this country forced the suspension of the stopover: Berlin requested isolation for several days due to the fierce progress of the pandemic. Next week Alberto Fernández and the Chancellor will speak by videoconference.

The same has happened with Moscow, another destination that has been analyzed but with much less probability than the German capital. But the agenda of Vladimir Poutine, Bounded, like Merkel, by COVID, they quickly ruled out their inclusion in the itinerary.

Alberto Fernández’s first European tour during the coronavirus era left, at least in terms of health, a satisfactory result: four samples for each member of the entourage, including the president himself, which were negative .

They did not have the same success in Mexico, last February, during Fernández’s visit to Andrés Manuel López Obrador, which had been bumpy since the previous one: 48 hours earlier, the president had ordered to ask him to resign. Ginés González García for the VIP vaccination scandal, revealed by this newspaper, and got the senator off the plane Jorge taiana and the deputy Eduardo Valdes, immunized in the antechamber of the cabinet of the former minister in the building of Health.

He just landed in Mexico City, a few days before the tour, as part of the advance, one of the heads of presidential custody, federal police, tested positive for COVID. He had to be isolated for ten days, and separated from those around him.

This time they were, in total, four swabs for Alberto Fernández and the most senior officials of the delegation: Minister Martín Guzmán, Minister of Foreign Affairs Felipe Solá and Secretaries Julio Vitobello, Guillermo Oliveri and Juan Pablo Biondi. All six are vaccinated. The secretary of the cult was the last to be vaccinated, about two weeks ago. Gustavo Béliz only joined on Wednesday, in Italy.

The first was in Buenos Aires, before flying to Europe. Later in Madrid, in the residence of the embassy, ​​in the district of Salamanca. And two more in Rome: a quick, Thursday morning in the hotel room, before the audience with Pope Francis, and a PCR test in the afternoon, in a reserved room on the ground floor.

The rest of the delegation – the collaborators, the president’s doctor, the guard staff of the federal police and the Military House, and the protocol, about thirty in total, also took samples on four occasions: in Buenos Aires, Lisbon, Madrid and Rome.

This is the first time that Casa Rosada has deployed a large delegation outside Argentina since the coronavirus surprised the planet. Some of the entourage experienced first-hand the various health restrictions in the main European capitals.

París, la tercera escala, de menos de 24 horas, fue la ciudad más restrictiva: en un proceso de desconfinamiento gradual -el 19 se reabren terrazas, cines y museos-, the capital francesa mantiene hasta ese día un toque de queda desde las 7 Evening. From next week, it will be from 9 p.m.

The presidential collaborators were almost unable to visit the city. For now, restaurants only serve delivery, and the hotel that hosted the delegation did not even have cafeteria service at the bar. A few steps from Biondi and Vitobello, the one who made the most of his time: He went out for a run through Retiro Park in Madrid, and he was sent to Rome, like the rest, which has a traffic restriction of 10 at night, but with little control.

Guzmán visited Madrid at dawn on Monday, this past weekend celebrated with a street party the end of deconfinement, to walk. He went out with his three collaborators to walk around the Paseo de la Castellana, which leaves the Spanish capital in the middle.

Madrid was completely empty at dawn. The Minister, the most active of the tourHe walked a few blocks and returned to the Ambassador’s residence, who greeted the entire delegation. A moment of relaxation in the midst of complex negotiations with the Monetary Fund. Far, at least for a few days, from the detainees of Buenos Aires who have him in the center of the storm.