Last week, the national government revealed that the president will be travelling with Massa — not Scioli as media reports predicted — to the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. It is the first time in 12 years that an Argentine head of state attends in the conference that gathers the world’s leading business and political leaders, an attempt to send out a clear message to investors that they intend to be more business-friendly than past administration

Monday, January 11, 2016

Scioli not invited to Davos due to BA crisis

Former Buenos Aires province governor Daniel Scioli meets with Governor María Eugenia Vidal in La Plata last month.

Macri praises Massa, says Governor Vidal found a district ‘with large budget problems’

President Mauricio Macri has revealed he did not invite former Buenos Aires province governnor Daniel Scioli to the Davos World Economic Conference because of the legacy of debts which he had left behind.

“The situation in Buenos Aires province was not exactly allowing that trip to take place. It was not a timely subject. Governor (María Eugenia) Vidal has found a district with large budget problems,” Macri said.

During an interview with half a dozen newspapers from the country’s interior, the Let’s Change leader argued that his Victory Front (FpV) rival in the presidential race “did not leave the necessary money to pay salaries or the end-year bonus.”

“Having debts amounting to thousands of millions (of pesos) does not correspond with his presidential campaign, which was based on the quality of his administration” of the country’s most populous province, Macri said.

Last week, the national government revealed that the president will be travelling with Massa — not Scioli as media reports predicted — to the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. It is the first time in 12 years that an Argentine head of state attends in the conference that gathers the world’s leading business and political leaders, an attempt to send out a clear message to investors that they intend to be more business-friendly than past administrations.

The announcement made last week went on to prove how Macri’s relationship with the former Tigre mayor appeared to have improved in the last few months.

In the interviews published yesterday, Macri continued to praise Massa, saying the Renewal Front lawmaker was “one of the most important opposition leaders in the country.”

“I want to reiterate my commitment to invite opposition leaders for foreign meetings,” the Let’s Change leader said. “We’ll prove Argentina is carrying out basic reforms and making key commitments.”

Massa, a dissident Peronist who broke away from the Cristina Fernández de Kirchner administration in 2013, ran against Scioli and Macri in the first round of presidential elections, but failed to reach the runoff. He did secure a third solid place, receiving more than 20 percent of the total nationwide vote, which allowed him to style himself as a kingmaker ahead of the second round of election.

Opposing views

from governors

Another key Peronist figure who moved closer to Macri was Salta Governor Juan Manuel Urtubey, who yesterday toned down demands made by provincial leaders regarding the current federal revenue-sharing policy.

In conversation with the state-run news agency Télam, Urtubey said debates over the so-called “coparticipation of funds” were only one of several issues that provinces can discuss with the new federal administration.

“I want to be realistic ... I want us to discuss this, but sincerely I think it’s impossible to do something about it in the short-term,” Urtubey said, before adding that other issues — such as the competitiveness of regional economies — were important, too.

“Argentina needs to have access to capital markets and to wait for monetary policies to stabilize. At the same time, the wage negotiations of the next few months should be reasonable,” he said.

Last week, the Salta leader — who in 2015 was re-elected as head of the northern province — met with Massa and former ANSES social security agency head Diego Bossio in Tigre in an attempt to show themselves as the new faces of the Justicialist (PJ) party after Peronists lost last year’s elections to Macri.

Yesterday, Urtubey said the party should “look to the future, not the past” in a veiled criticism of staunch Kirchnerite leaders who want to continue leading the party founded by Juan Domingo Perón.

Not all governors agree with him.

Chaco Governor Domingo Peppo said that while he enjoyed a good relationship with Macri, he did not approve of the DNU emergency decrees passed by the Let’s Change administration in the last few weeks.

“That’s no way of eliminating agencies created by laws passed by Congress,” Peppo told Télam in reference to the DNUs appointing two new Supreme Court justices and amending the 2009 Broadcast Media Law.

“We need to put the economy back on track and that includes public works,” Peppo said. “If we don’t begin investing in public works and resuming the ones already scheduled, we would be sending the wrong messages to businessmen, who are waiting for concrete signs.”

Herald staff with Télam