Matías Kulfas left his bags half packed. Until noon on Saturday she had planned to leave for Los Angeles last night to participate in a meeting of ministers of Productive Development, until the vice president’s tweet Cristina Kirchnerin which, without naming him, he accused him of versions of favoritism in the award of works for the gas pipeline Nestor Kichnerprecipitated his departure from office.
Resigned, one of the ministers closest to the President until Friday will be today, at Casa Rosada or Olivos, with his resignation signed to deliver it to the president. His mixture of anger and disappointment is shared by several of the ministers that, during the last two days, they called him to convey their solidarity and say goodbye.
In that list there are friends, like Cecilia Todesca o santiago cafiero, with whom he shared the Callao group. Among those missing is the Minister of the Interior, Edward of Peterand his peer of Justice, Martin Soriaboth close to the vice president.
“It’s not going to change anything. Alberto is going to continue like this, waiting for the economy to recover, while the others hit us”, two cabinet members agreed on the day after the President’s request for resignation, which followed Cristina’s complaints.
It is precisely this suspicion, and beyond the economic announcements that the President and his Minister of Economy, Martin Guzmanthey will make effective today, the one that hits the morale of many albertist cabinet members, who without justifying Kulfas (“he was wrong”, they agree) believe that “the dead are always on the same side”.
And that the President did not use his “pen” as requested by the Vice President to get rid of officials from La Cámpora or nearby who not only resigned from their positions last September, but also continue (some in off the recordas they attribute to Kulfas) harshly criticizing Fernández and his management measures.
“Alberto no longer wants to go down in history as the best President. He wants, in chess terms, to get to a draw. But if the partners do not want it, it is difficult”, they maintain from an office loyal to the president in Casa Rosada in critical reference to Christianity.
How to continue from here on? Close to the President there are those who prefer to look ahead and not generate more friction. “Nobody helps much. But it is inexcusable that their own assumptions do this”, complained an official dealing daily with the President. And he remarked that Fernández “defined a political line of union of the front of all and the end of the off and the freethinkers.”
Other referents, meanwhile, justify the criticism of Kulfas, who responded to the accusations of Christianity of not “using the pen” launched by the vice president towards Fernández in the act of the 100 years of YPF. “Some think that we have to continue like this, without reacting, and others that we think that we should not stoically tolerate verbal violence and Cristina’s boycott”an Albertist supporter of “stick by stick” against Christianity vented.
At noon on Saturday, and according to those familiar with the dialogue, Kulfas called the President to make his resignation available. “Wait, don’t say anything, let me see,” the president replied, for an hour later if he asked for his resignation.
During the afternoon, Kulfas spoke with Daniel Scioliwhich was already sounding like a possible replacement, to bring him up to date on some issues related to his new role, which will not begin -they coincide near the Brazilian ambassador and at the Casa Rosada- until early next week, once the President returns from the Summit of the Americas, to which he will depart tomorrow night.
“He has to disarm his life in Brazil. Not only the house and the personal, but issues that I had pending with businessmen and ambassadors from other countries”, they justified it from the office of the presidential spokesperson, Gabriela Cerruti. Scioli stayed in Buenos Airesawaiting his meeting with the President to define the new organization chart of the ministry and the policy to follow.
While close to the still ambassador and the President agree that his assumption is a matter of days, it transpired that sectors of the Cámpora do not give up and insist that it be Serge Massa who assumes this ministry.
From the Massa environment they affirm that they do not see it feasible, and that the president of the lower house is “full with the monotax project”, to be discussed this week in Congress. Massa, who does not hide his differences with Guzmán, was at the Olivos villa on Saturday afternoon, and his name was circulated as a possible replacement for Kulfas before it was decided that the former Buenos Aires governor would be chosen for that position.
“The problem is the continuity of the line led by Guzmán. Politics is in disarray and we are heading for another notch in inflation”, warned another stalwart of the President, concerned about the coming months and the continuity of the plan that Fernández is betting on today to survive without too many shocks until the end of his term.