Sergio Massa gestures in this file photo. The head of the Renewal Front opposition bloc rejetced the government-backed sovereign debt payment bill.

Thursday, September 11, 2014

'Argentina will return to foreign markets'

Sergio Massa gestures in this file photo. The head of the Renewal Front opposition bloc rejetced the government-backed sovereign debt payment bill.

Following the approval of the government-sponsored debt payment bill, the head of the Renewal Front (FR) Sergio Massa said Argentina “will return to markets” to get financing as he called for “calm.”

“What we want is to convey tranquility to people because if that does not happen now, it will in 455 days. Argentina will return to markets, Argentina will have market and people will have credit for housing,” the opposition leader told media a few hours after the Congress signed into law a bill setting a local payment agent for the country’s creditors that did accept the 2005 and 2010 restructurings, creating as well a permanent debt monitoring committee. 455 days, he said, alluding to next year's general elections when he intends to run for president and defy the candidate of the ruling Victory Front party.

According to the also ex cabinet chief during President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner first term in office, some colleagues in parliament “don’t understand” the significance of public debt in Argentina's development.

“When one talks about hydroelectric plants, roads, trains, increasing the installing capacity of the industry to rise the offer of goods to Argentineans, we talk about the need for financing,” Massa said in statements to a radio show today questioning also the almost 16-hour session in which the bill was approved today’s early morning.

“There was folklore, which there always is. Actually, it is an old logic of thinking that rising your voice makes you impose an idea, and reason is in ideas, in the head. The Argentine society knows what is coming, the future of dialogue, consensus and that, sooner or later, will surface, will emerge in matters of politics and electoral forms,” he said adding the RF is no that “optimistic” about the recently approved project.

“Other lawmakers supported (the bill) just because and other rejected it just because they would not. We took the time to consult legal firms abroad, markets where Argentina could have its funds protected, we consulted those who had to do with the 2005 restructuring.