2024-02-14 13:06:16
In his extensive letter titled Argentina in its third debt crisis, the former president Cristina Kirchner left a series of proposals y debates to give on the basis of respect for those who think differently and on the concrete experience of history and not merely theoretical conceptions.
In the 33-page document that she made public through social networks, Cristina Kirchner analyzed the “state of the situation” of the country, the historical debt crises that Argentina had and the neoliberal processes that shook Argentina throughout recent history. In addition, she launched strong criticism of Javier Milei’s plans and assured that the “fierce adjustment program that acts as a true destabilization plan.”
The 8 debates raised by Cristina Kirchner
State Reform
Cristina asked to review “the efficiency of the state”. He assured that this debate must take place beyond the slogan of the “present State”, since the country’s problems “are too many”, in a message that also seemed directed inside Peronism.
“The correct resource allocation to be able to correct it, if necessary,” said Kirchner, giving more depth to a debate that usually puts neoliberalism on the scene in a hyper-simplified way.
The future of debt
He expressed the position that the opposition should have within the framework of the debate on two key projects, the Debt Sustainability Law and the State Financial Administration Law.
“We disagre with the repeal of the Debt Sustainability Law, which establishes that Argentina’s indebtedness in foreign currency, under foreign law and with extension of jurisdiction requires authorization from the National Congress,” he said.
And he added: “Not even with the modification of the State Financial Administration Law in that it establishes that in the case of debt restructuring the amount, term and/or interest must be improved.”
Tax reform
“Yes, it seems essential to us to discuss a simplified tax system with few taxes in quantity, to organize and make life easier, especially for SMEs that generally keep very domestic accounting and are the main generators of work in Argentina, but very strict in their compliance with regulations that increase perception risk due to avoidance and evasion,” he noted.
At this point, he considered that “it must be a progressive system that not only contemplates the flowsbut also the stock y review tax expenses that express exceptions, exemptions and broken rates for different groups and sectors of the economy.”
This statement was accompanied by a clarification: “We are willing to discuss an incentive regime for large investments, but that add value and transfer technology. The opposite would be to reprimarize our economy and condemn us to extractivism.”
Sanitary reform
Within the framework of these debates, Cristina Kirchner considered that a sanitary reform: “We maintain the need to rethink the current public health system, whose decentralization (between the Nation, provinces and municipalities), fragmentation (between the public, social works and prepaid subsystems) and poor regulation, have been causing its weakening.”
Among the first drawbacks that must be overcome, the former vice president noted “its inequity and inefficiency in terms of resource allocation.” “All this in a country that has one of the highest levels of investment in health in all of Latin America,” she recalled.
Labour reform
With similar logic, Cristina highlighted within the pending debates the discussion of a “job updating plan that provides responses to new forms of labor relations arising in light of technological advances and a pandemic that disrupted each and every area of people’s lives.”
“Teleworking and digital platforms, which mediate between supply and demand, are some of the modalities that must be protected normatively,” he stated in his extensive letter.
However, he said, the reforms must be deeper: “The forms of labor contracting already included in our legal system must also be reviewedby updating collective bargaining agreements, many of which date back decades, taking into account the new realities mentioned above.”
Education reform
“We also believe that building the public school of which we are children means thinking about the reason why part of the middle and lower middle sectors make an effort to send their children to privately managed schools so that they have classes every year. days,” he added in this direction.
Private capital in state companies
Almost at the end, Cristina Kirchner spoke about the future of state companies – a debate that is more than present in Javier Milei’s Government – and assured that it must be debated “the integration of state companies, both through participation of private capital as well as of the provinces (…), as well as its stock market price to add value and efficiency in the form of a virtuous public-private partnership.”
Security reform
Finally, the former president said that “in terms of security, we must abandon sloganism.” “With social inequality on the one hand or trigger-happy behavior on the other, no security plan can be developed,” she warned.
And he concluded: “More intelligence must be developed to disarm organized crime and community policing for prevention. In this sense, video surveillance can be an effective method within the framework of new technologies (surveillance drones, cameras operated with artificial intelligence, security rings, among others).”