Hear
Javier Milei fulfilled one of his greatest teenage dreams. Among those youthful illusions It wasn’t about being president, but it was about getting to sing at Luna Park.. The day before yesterday he did it and enjoyed it. He showed the same satisfaction for achieving a later goal: to be the pastor of a multitudinous liberal flock.
The President continues to accumulate personal achievements, as well as causing national and international impact (of diverse nature). It cannot be denied. Yesterday, furthermore, it reached the cap from the legendary American magazine time.
However, when you look a little further than so many eccentric one-man shows of (blinding) lights and (deafening) sounds, shadows and much less harmonious noises appear. Just like those that emerge from the rigorous and uncompromising text that the journalist Vera Bergengruen wrote in the American publication.
The same thing seems to be replicated in other parts of the country and within the Casa Rosada itself, where the chief of staff and presidential friend staggers groggy, Nicolas Posse. Absent from the Mileist mass, his job security would have an expiration date close to it. And not to mention the devalued and postponed May Pact or the fate of the crucial Base Law.
appear disturbing simultaneities. At the same time that Milei was trying to sing the lyrics of “Panic Show”, in Missions They preferred to clash with the song that closed the presentation at Luna Park, where it had sounded extemporaneous.
“It comes,” also known as “El burst” (“from your government”), the song by Bersuit Vergarabat that anticipated the end of convertibility and the political-economic collapse of 2001, was more in line with the severe crisis that has paralyzed and altered the Mesopotamian province for a week.
The organization of the libertarian party in lower Buenos Aires left no room for the situation in Misiones to alter the President, who, through his spokespersons, opted to detach yourself from the issue to reduce it to a provincial problemdetach it from national issues and, even more so, from measures adopted during his administration.
However, for many reasons (political, social and economic) The Casa Rosada is no stranger to the union (and social) conflict in Misiones. Although governing had not been in Milei’s youthful daydreams, it is today his current job (as he describes it) and what happens in the country’s public space does not escape his responsibility. This is what happens in the case of that troubled province.
Milei considers Misiones one of the exemplary provinces for the management of its public accountsjust as he has expressed admiration for who has controlled power in that territory for 20 years, Carlos Rovirato whom the governors who succeeded him and came to office through him respond and have obediently responded.
“You have to talk to Rovira, who is a very intelligent guy and I respect him a lot.” That was the order that the President gave to one of his trusted officials who a couple of months ago traveled to the province to finish committing the vote on the Bases Law in Congress of the official missionary legislators.
The mission was successful and the now-challenged and silent provincial leader Hugo Passalacqua was the first governor to express unrestricted support for the law that today, after almost six months in office, Milei cannot get her sanctioned. The commitment, which the Misiones deputies honored, was compensated with discretionary items that are still prohibited to most provinces. These contributions were reduced by 80% during Milei’s term and, Of the 20% distributed, Misiones was one of the exceptional beneficiaries.
However, these contributions (discretionary, it is worth emphasizing) were not enough to avoid the conflict. An explosive cocktail, which many fear is brewing in other provinces, made the claims explode.
Misiones, like the other States, suffers from a double clamp on your income. As appears from official data, the co-participating taxes suffered in the first months of 2024 a real drop in the order of 19%. And for Misiones, co-participation represents around 60% of its income.
This reduction is the product of the deep recession that the adjustment plan of the Milei-Luis Caputo tandem is causing, and which in March translated into a drop in activity of around 8.4% compared to the same month of 2023. and accumulates a decrease of 5.3% in the first quarter of 2024. The lower activity shown by national data has its correlation in direct provincial income.
Added to this are the problems that missionary income suffers today, a State whose administration “since it began to be controlled by Rovira has been characterized by its austerity and fiscal discipline, because he follows Néstor Kirchner’s motto: to govern is to have cash.” . And enough cash to use at discretion,” explains a deep connoisseur of the political and economic reality of the province.
However, that path began to become complicated and what was called a “soft fit”which consists of letting inflation run and giving salary increases below it. This is what has just exploded, fueled by increases in service rates and the fall in commercial activity. that produced the devaluation. So, Brazilian citizens stopped arriving who took advantage of the difference and the exchange gap to consume products and services in the province. Nothing that other provinces with borders with neighboring countries are not suffering, which not only no longer receive foreign consumers, but also lose local clients who take the opposite path.
Governor Passalacqua said on May 1 in his opening speech to regular sessions of the Legislature that “’the province will never spend more than it earns.’ Well, he is earning much less, and he transferred the adjustment to the state,” explains the collaborator of THE NATION in misions Martin Boerr.
The continuity of the protest, despite the concessions made so far by the missionary government, not only worries the exemplary province of Milei. Similar prospects appear in other districts.
“For now, the Government can limit everything to Misiones, but if it starts to spread and spreads to more districts, who is going to blame and who are Argentines going to start looking at as responsible?”. The question, formulated rhetorically by one of the governors who until now have been at the antipodes of Milei, mixes prognosis with expression of wishes.
The panorama finds more warning lights when looking at other sensitive expenditures that the provinces will have to make soon and for which they do not have the resources assured: To the ongoing demands for salary increases they must add the payment of the bonus.
Not to mention those they must face debt maturities. This is the case of the province of Buenos Aires, which is a few meters from the Casa Rosada and whose governor, Axel Kicillofseeks to lead the resistance against the national government, for which it is showing an openness towards political sectors that until recently were excluded from all treatment by Kirchnerism.
“Today I have three priorities. The first, govern the province and defend its interests. The second, put a limit on the Government and articulate an opposition that can prevent this model that is harmful to the people from advancing. And the third, put together a political project that defeats the ruling party in the next elections. I am working on that, but in no hurry because I believe that this government is going to finish its mandate,” says Kicillof in the meetings that he has been holding with interlocutors, some that until recently he did not include among his contacts.
The declaration of principles and the statement of priorities and projects also have the objective of waterproofing themselves against the nickname of dismissal that Milei throws at the Kirchnerists; minimize and try to shut down internal disputes, especially with Maximo Kirchnerand, finally, announce their intention to create an outstanding space. In La Plata the echoes of Nestorist transversality reverberate in the mouth of someone who was accused of having few political attributes. Point with which the Kirchnerist leadership lambasts him.
The incipient assembly of Kicillof, which includes photos with some governors of what remains of Together for Change, such as the radical from Santa Fe Maximiliano Pullaro and the chubutense macrista Ignacio Torresfor now it does not seem a threat to the national government.
But these movements operate as a backdrop to deeper movements for demands for better incomes that were awakened in the interior of the country.
In this context, some incipient noises that the show the day before yesterday at Luna Park did not completely silence became louder and added to these sparks that emerge to alter the dream of the great world prophet of liberal ideasas Milei has defined himself these days, rather than as the president of all Argentines.
The rise of financial and blue dollars coexists with the more than relevant data released yesterday by Coninagro, which shows that The liquidation of grain exports at this time of the year is the lowest in the last five years.
The end of the pax exchange rate, reached after the January mini-run, adds to the reluctance of the agro-export sector to part with their grains to receive pesos that no one wants or knows how to protect their value, with interest rates in free fall and inflation still in force, although in decline, and despite the fact that Milei and Caputo swear that the rate of devaluation will not accelerate. Another indigestible combo.
For this reason, almost no one (which includes the politically sensitive sectors of La Rosada) dares to rule out that there could be a contagion effect of what is happening in Mesopotamia..
The crucial question these days begins to be whether Misiones is patient zero of an outbreak with unpredictable consequences or if it will end up being an isolated case. for social patience, which continues to hold Milei’s image high. Nobody has the answer, in the midst of so much noise.
