The president has supported Martín Guzmán and considers that the internship with Federico Basualdo is “finished”

“Come with me MartínAlberto Fernández told him. The president was hurrying into the latest Mercedes Benz model which was waiting for him at the door of the hotel which houses the official delegation, and which would transfer it to Belem Palace, the historic residence of the The Portuguese president declared a national monument in 2007.

Martin guzman, who left before embarking on Saturday evening at Ezeiza airport for his worst week as minister, got into the Mercedes with Fernández, at the limit of 5 p.m. local time, and they arrived together at the first official activity of the five day trips which have Lisbon as the first stop and which includes, until Friday, Madrid, Paris and Rome.

Presidential move to elevate Guzmán to his first official transfer – he was waiting for them Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa in Belem’s residence – through the streets of a sympathetic and springtime Lisbon, which has been going through total confusion for a few months because of COVID, places the Minister of the Economy at the forefront of a tour focused in particular on renegotiation debt to the Monetary Fund first, then to the Paris Club.

The leading role of this European Guzmán seeks to counter usury sufrido por el ministro en la última semana por el rumbo de la política económica, cuyo broche de oro fue la decisión, hasta ahora fallida, de renunciar al subsecretario de Energía, un funcionario de tercera línea que responde directo a La Cábre poros, céle days.

In the presidential entourage, the case Guzmán-Basualdo annoys. It is perhaps one of the least pleasant subjects of domestic politics. Not just because of the officials themselves: if not because of the eternal discussion of leadership within the coalition.

“It’s a finished subject. It was much louder in the media than what actually happened. With Martín, there is an intense work schedule, “they excused themselves in this city from the presidential environment. Guzmán, they trust the delegation, every time they mention Basualdo, his face changes.

The debate in Buenos Aires on increasing electricity tariffs in the city and Greater Buenos Aires -the heart of the K- vote, which the minister intends to settle with a new increase beyond the 9% formalized two Fridays by segmentation, is still latent.

But Europe will not be the place to submit it.

The minister, who in the summer ended up losing the sympathy that Cristina Kirchner initially offered him with the support for the renegotiation of the debt with the private bonds issued under foreign legislation, He arrived in Lisbon focused exclusively on negotiations with the Monetary Fund. Despite the fact that the government’s subsidy policy, and its consequences for the state accounts, is linked to conversations with the multilateral credit agency.

For the civil servant, the discussion is strictly economic. And no politics. That is why he was accused even by his own allies for the “practice mala“with which he tried to run to the under-secretary connected with the kidney of kirchnerism.

This Monday, Guzmán, who has landed in Lisbon with a handful of collaborators following him in the sun and shade, will have his only meeting in the Portuguese capital outside of the presidential agenda by mid-morning local time. This is the meeting he will have with João Leão, the government’s finance minister, a senior official from whom the Argentine minister is seeking support in renegotiating with the Fund.

This is Guzmán’s main role this week. Leão was the only finance minister he had not met on his last tour, before his internal feud with Basualdo erupted, and which took him through Germany, Spain, France and Italy. ‘Italy. “We now want to complete the harvest of this work and gain the support of the presidents“, they assure the delegation.

As of press time, the Minister, that Fernández ratified without nuances for the role he gave him on this trip, he had finished defining the rest of his agenda in Madrid, Paris and Rome, the three destinations of the Aerolineas Argentinas charter rented by the presidency. Other activities could be added to the requisition of entrepreneurs in France.

The closure, in Rome, will have the minister who last week was in the sights of the Instituto Patria face to face with Kristalina Georgieva, the director of the Monetary Fund. During an activity in the Vatican under the aegis of Pope Francis.

Lisbon, special correspondent