Lacking results, Sergio Massa tries to sustain a possible presidential bid
“It’s politics, stupid,” could be one of the phrases adopted by Sergio Massa, who now accuses electoral strategy of messing up the economy.
Argentina’s economy minister anticipated last week’s inflation data – 8.4 percent in April, the highest inflation figure since 2002 – by returning to the political definitions that he decided to abandon nine months ago, when he took over as head of the portfolio.
Now, with the possibility of a candidacy no longer supported by even the most optimistic members of Frente de Todos, he has decided to resist, to speak as a candidate and to demand that there be no competition for the ruling coalition’s nomination in the PASO primaries.
Massa knew that last Friday’s inflation figure would leave him with little electoral expectation, so he had to take the initiative himself, showing off strength that he no longer sustains with economic results.
The economy minister’s last moves were carefully timed. Last Tuesday he made his first electoral statement at the Amcham summit, assuring business leaders that he was against the PASO. Last Wednesday he went a little further by explaining that time cannot be wasted on sterile primaries, and then he went further: “We can’t afford any more trouble, we need political order so that there can be economic order.” In other words: if he cannot fix the economy, the blame lies with politics. The previous culprits had been a run on the exchange rate and the figure of Antonio Aracre, the former presidential advisor who recently resigned.
Last week Massa spoke as a candidate because he believes he can still be one. Before the inflation data was published, there were only a few leaders in Frente de Todos who supported this hypothesis. Now only the CGT umbrella union grouping is calling for his name.
The minister resists and speaks of an electoral scenario without internal elections. This is a marked difference with President Alberto Fernández’s preferred electoral strategy. The head of state believes that Massa’s call for no competition is a “horrible message” and in With inflation damaging his chances of a run for the Casa Rosada, minister is pivoting back to politics. no way believes that the PASOS generate instability, as the economy minister suggested. “Democracy and the vote can never generate instability,” the president told his inner circle.
Kirchnerism is also against a competitive PASO, but in recent months its leaders have begun to admit that the possibility remains, especially without a definition from the vice-president about her preferences. Interior Minister Eduardo ‘Wado’ De Pedro said recently that this was the scenario to which the president had led them and that they are willing to compete. He is one of the possible candidates.
Argentina’s ambassador to Brazil, Daniel Scioli, assures that he will not drop out of the electoral race and that he will compete in the primaries, regardless of the other names that are finally put forward. “If neither Alberto Fernández nor Cristina Fernández de Kirchner are in the field, Massa’s claim is incomprehensible. If Sergio had inflation at three percent, he would be the only candidate. With inflation at eight [percent], he should go to an internal election and stop saying that the economy is being calmed. It sounds like a threat to the coalition, rather than a political proposal to define candidacies,” said one figure from Scioli’s entourage.
Social leader Juan Grabois, with whom Massa has strong differences, says that he will win a primary against the economy minister. The Movimiento de Trabajadores Excluídos leader is willing to compete if there is no candidate to represent him (they would be De Pedro or Fernández de Kirchner). The vice-president, however, remains silent and the definition of a candidate, or candidates, is being stretched.