Stories that caught our eye: October 4 to 11

MILEI’S UNIVERSITY VETO STANDS

The Chamber of Deputies last Wednesday failed to override the presidential veto of its university financing bill with its 159-84 vote (plus five abstentions, four of them from Misiones) falling short of the required two-thirds majority. The intervention of ex-resident Mauricio Macri swaying the centre-right PRO caucus in favour of the veto and Radical divisions were considered decisive for the result but inland provincial support and strategic absences were also crucial with the defection of maverick libertarian deputy Lourdes Arrieta (FE) to vote against the veto insufficient to tilt the balance. Ex-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner afterwards rapped the Peronist governors contributing to five Peronist deputies voting to uphold the veto. Those in favour of the bill argued that its cost of 0.14 percent of Gross Domestic Product was a tenth of the fiscal surplus. Outside Congress the attack on a libertarian streamer was repudiated by Ministers Patricia Bullrich (Security) and Mariano Cúneo Libarona (Justice) with the latter posting on his social networks: “Total repudiation of the cowardly aggression against the journalist Francisco Antunez by violent leftist militants outside Congress.” Antunez (aka “Fran Fijap”) himself commented that it was “a miracle he was alive.” Despite being awarded a 6.8 percent increase for this month on the eve of the vote, university lecturers and non-academic staff responded to the parliamentary ratification of the presidential veto by calling a “total strike” for Thursday, arguing that 70 percent of their salaries were below the poverty line.

INFLATION JOY FOR GOVERNMENT

Last month’s inflation was 3.5 percent, the INDEC statistics bureau announced on Thursday afternoon, thus finally breaking through the four percent barrier after hovering just above it in the previous four months and the lowest figure since November 2021. Annual inflation now dips to 209 percent with 101.6 percent in the first three quarters of this year. The leading culprit was housing, water, electricity, gas and fuels (7.3 percent), mainly due to the annual rent increase, followed by garments and footwear (six percent) for seasonal reasons. The key item of food and beverages was well below the average at 2.2 percent. City Hall gave last month’s local inflation as four percent at the start of the week for an annual rate of 218.8 percent or 115.1 percent so far this year. Transport (5.1 percent, health (five percent) and housing, water, electricity, gas and fuels (4.3 percent) were the main culprits with the key item of food and beverages way below average at 2.2 percent (identical to the national figure but 4.1 percent for meat).

GUESS WHO’S BACK?

Former two-term president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner  announced on Monday that she had decided to yield to the pressures of the “Draft Cristina” campaign which she herself had organised together with the La Cámpora militant grouping and run for the Justicialist Party chair. Thanking the “Draft Cristina” drive, the ex-president said that she was willing to accept the challenge for the sake of “a unity needing direction and projection to construct the best possible Peronism for an Argentina which has become impossible for most of its inhabitants.” La Rioja Province Governor Ricardo Quintela, previously the only candidate for the post, said that he would “go ahead” with his bid although there were doubts whether his campaign could be sustained against such a formidable rival, especially if Buenos Aires Province Governor Axel Kicillof withdraws his support, as expected. The party chair, vacant since the resignation of a scandal-stricken ex-president Alberto Fernández last August 14, is due to be defined on November 17 – just four days after the Federal Cassation Court is due to uphold, increase or quash Fernández de Kirchner’s six-year sentence for orchestrating public works graft – but Peronist Loyalty Day next Thursday might well see an earlier consensus among its leadership. Despite general adhesion, the candidacy triggered the resignation from the party of ex-minister Florencio Randazzo (today an Encuentro Federal deputy for Buenos Aires Province). 

HOSPITALS ON BOIL

At the start of the week Garrahan Hospital workers enrolled in the ATE state workers union announced a 48-hour strike for Tuesday and Wednesday which quickly dovetailed into a crisis at the Laura Bonaparte Mental Health Hospital. Norma Lezana, secretary-general of the APyT (Asociación de Profesionales y Técnicos) union said: “We need a 100 percent wage increase, which is what has been lost between August and now.” According to union sources, the lowest wages were as little as a monthly 1.5 million pesos. The strike was accompanied on Tuesday by a march on the Economy Ministry to bring the problem to the door of its head Luis Caputo. The crisis at the Garrahan began at the start of the month when the incoming Health Minister Mario Lugones nixed a half-million-peso wages bonus and replaced the entire administrative board for accepting it. On the same day Garrahan employees were calling a strike, their Bonaparte Hospital counterparts and families of the patients were staging a symbolic embrace of “Argentina’s only national psychiatric hospital,” as they call it, treating “people whose rights are totally vulnerable.” Total closure with the loss of its 200 jobs is considered imminent after the emergency services and the reception of new patients were closed down last weekend although the Health Ministry assured that the continuity of treatment for the 40 already hospitalised patients was guaranteed. The hospital is consulted by almost 100,000 people annually with 25,000 receiving treatment. On Thursday the two crises overlapped with a march from the Garrahan to the Bonaparte.

TRANSPORT STRIKE LOOMS END OF MONTH

Meeting on October 8 (the birthday of Juan Domingo Perón), transport workers had been contemplating calling a 24-hour strike for Peronist Loyalty Day next Thursday but ended up rescheduling it for October 30. The absence of the UTA bus-drivers’ union headed by Roberto Fernández from the preparatory meeting led to speculation that buses would not be joining the stoppage amid unrest in the sector following the deregulation of long-distance bus transport last weekend.

NO MORE GREEN TAGS

The government advanced towards its objective of deregulating foreign trade when last Wednesday it formalised the elimination of the green stamp and reference values (also scrapped for exports) from imports, as announced by a communiqué from the Deregulation & State Transformation Ministry headed by Federico Sturzenegger. The green stamp (more a tag to be honest) has been in force since 1987 but will now be replaced by digital systems of product identification. 

VEEP DOES EUROPE

Vice-President Victoria Villarruel last Sunday began a tour of Spain and Italy which will culminate in a private Vatican audience with Pope Francis next Monday. Avoiding contacts in Spain with a socialist-led government headed by Pedro Sánchez at loggerheads with President Javier Milei, Villerruel (who heads the Argentine Senate ex-officio) met with her Spanish counterpart Pedro Rollán Ojeda from the Partido Popular (PP) and PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijoó. Tuesday was dedicated to the United Nations International Conference on Victims of Terrorism in the Basque city of Vitoria-Gasteiz (near the French frontier), headed by King Felipe VI himself, with whom Villarruel informally conversed. There Villarruel expounded on her wish to reopen “all cases of victims of terrorism,” in reference to her call last August for all Montonero ex-guerrillas to be in prison, deploring “four decades of impunity for terrorism in Argentina.” She also blasted the Sánchez government for commuting the sentences of dozens of Basque ETA terrorists.

LLA LAUNCH IN OLDEST CITY

Presidential chief-of-staff Karina Milei and Congress Speaker Martín Menem dedicated last weekend to launching their La Libertad Avanza (LLA) party in Santiago del Estero, the province giving President Javier Milei’s Peronist rival Sergio Massa by far his biggest margin in last year’s presidential elections. Martín Menem anointed Tomás Figueroa, from a Peronist clan strongly linked to the 1989-1999 Carlos Menem presidency, as the new local party boss. Karina Milei informed her public that the Milei family had property in the province, going on to describe LLA’s uphill struggle to reach power. Apart from the midterms, Santiago del Estero will also be electing a new governor next year, the only province to so other than Corrientes.

LA DONNA NO E MOBILE

Former first lady Fabiola Yañez failed to hand in her mobile telephone to a Spanish court by midweek, leading to its contents being ruled out as evidence in her gender violence charges against ex-president Alberto Fernández, whose defence lawyers had argued that the telephone needed to be in national territory to minimise the “risks of manipulation or contamination of the data.” On Tuesday evening Yañez posted: “I’m scared” on her Instagram account.

MACCA ROCKS RIVER

Defying his 82 years, Sir Paul McCartney wowed 70,000 people in River Plate stadium with a concert of almost three hours in River Plate stadium last Saturday with a repeat performance on Sunday. The Liverpool-born bass guitarist kicked off his gig with the early Beatle song ’Can’t buy me love’ and the show was dominated by hits from the Fab Four although there were also half a dozen numbers from his later career in Wings. McCartney’s ‘Got Back Tour’ will get him back to Argentina later this month for an October 23 show in Córdoba following concerts in Chile and Brazil.