“I’m very brave.” Sergio Massa told Nicolás Pino as soon as he sat down at the table in the Central Dining Room of La Rural this afternoon.
“And I am a kamikaze for bringing you here,” Pino, the president of La Rural, reminded him.
Since 1989, when Carlos Menem was running for president, no Peronist candidate I had been invited to have lunch in that place that during the Palermo exhibition is a gathering place for cabañeros, businessmen and bankers, among the most exclusive of the red circle.
Massa exposed himself to some reproach while the dollar, despite his announcementsit was jumping to $550. But it was all kindness and confessions during the meal, while from the other tables they conjectured about what was being discussed with the candidate minister.
There, surrounded by Marcos Pereda, the vice president of the Rural Society and president of the powerful Bermejo agro-industrial group, he recounted that on Sunday night he had held a zoom with the IMF and its Managing Director: “Georgieva, Rodrigo Valdez (director of the Western Hemisphere) and Luis Cubeddu (in charge of the Argentine case) were there. I told them that on Friday they go on vacation and we want to pay and that therefore we need a strong definition”, he confessed to them.
In that, Pino wanted to know if the agreement was not closed then. Massa replied: “There is very little left, we are very close and the disbursements arrive from August to November. They are going to be about US$ 8,000 to US$ 10,000 million”.
The minister-candidate immediately added that this morning he wrote to Georgieva again. As he slipped, she would have told him about the urgency of wanting to pay and the need for a prior disbursement, always before this Friday, when the IMF board lowers the curtain for a month. They go on vacation.
By the way, Massa dedicated a large part of the day to his visit to La Rural, despite the fact that he hardly visited the sample. At about 12 when she arrived at the red room to join a seminar on candidate proposals, Gustavo Cinosi was waiting for him at the door, advisor to Luis Almagro at the OAS, shareholder of the Tucumán and Pilar Sheratons and with contacts in the United States. “Sergio is lovable, everyone there wants Argentina to stop being a problem”he said briefly to Clarion when asked about how they saw him in Washington.
Considered a controversial lobbyist due to his extensive catalog of relationships, from Julio de Vido to the United States embassy, Cinosi knew how to cultivate a strong friendship with Juan Manzur, long before he was chief of staff. And at the beginning of the government of Alberto Fernández it was a kind of bridge with its multiple contacts in washington. Susan Segal, number one in the Council of the Americas, he relies on his efforts when he comes to Buenos Aires.
And today he accompanied Massa to lunch in the Central Dining Room together with José de Mendiguren, the secretaries Juan Jose Bahillo, of Agriculture and Jorge Neme, of Development; and the former minister Julián Domínguez who became an adviser.
In the previous conference, Massa spoke after Patricia Bullrich, which got all the applause.
When it was his turn, he asked to be turn on the lights in the auditorium, something that was interpreted as a way to avoid any alteration. There were people who entered together with the minister who was distributed in different rows encouraging applause. And there were no uncomfortable questions or reproaches.
Too much promise eliminate withholdings to regional economies: “As of September 1, no regional economy in Argentina will pay withholding.” He referred to wine, onion, rice, and tobacco.
And he referred, in a train of conquest to that audience, to “dialogue with the sector and the articulated work that It’s fundamental”. Also that it will alleviate the tax burden. “You cannot live eternally embracing fights from the past, because that stops Argentina. Throughout these years I have shown that I have autonomy of thought and decision”, he pointed out.
At the end, he stated: “I believe in private property, I believe in the sum of capital and work and I believe in the countryside as the engine of the Argentine economy”. The leaders Carlos Achetoni, from the Agrarian Federation, and Jorge Chemes, from the CRA, who have been known for standing up to the Government, approached him and wished him “much success”.
2023-07-25 15:02:22
#Massa #leaders #Rural #middle #controversial #lobbyist
