Vice President of Argentina Cristina Kirchner said that within the ruling party “there are debates and not fights”, but acknowledged that she is concerned that the government of Alberto Fernández will lose “the trust and hope” of those who voted for them in 2019.
“How do we restore people’s hope and desires? This is my greatest concern and it is also my greatest feeling of bitterness, because of the trust they placed in us. The truth is that I think we are not honoring so much desire, so much trust, so much hope that they placed in us,” he warned.
Kirchner was declared Doctor Honoris Causa of the National University of the Austral Chaco (northeast), in an act that became a massive rally broadcast by all news channels due to the interest generated by her public appearance in a week of tension and crossed accusations. within the Frente de Todos government coalition (centre-left Peronism).
“Here the only victims are those who can’t make ends meet (with their salary), those who don’t have a job, those who don’t have enough to feed their children, those are the victims. And that’s why we have the obligation to debate,” launched Kirchner, who governed Argentina between 2007 and 2015.
Despite the economic recovery of 10.3% in 2021 after falling 9.9% the previous year in the pandemic, poverty reaches 37.2% of Argentinesyes
In her conference entitled “State, Power and Society: Democratic Dissatisfaction,” the vice president denied that the publicly expressed differences between leaders aligned with her and those who respond to President Fernández are “fights.” “In the Executive there is a debate of ideas,” she assured.
In any case, he pointed out the management of economic policy and the lack of price control in the context of galloping inflation, which is expected to exceed 60% this year, and the lack of reserves in the coffers of the Central Bank despite a surplus favorable trade in 2021.
“You have to know the interests that one represents and defend them, that’s the key,” he said.
Kirchner lamented the consequences that Argentina has contracted a debt of some 45,000 million dollars with the International Monetary Fund in 2018, during the government of the liberal Mauricio Macri, recently refinanced.
“We have conditions from the Fund. The Fund is demanding permanent devaluation above the consumer price index and the interest rate above that. That is not going to give growth or a drop in inflation,” Kirchner said.
In a “bi-monetary economy” like Argentina’s, “the shortage of dollars is the real cause of the increase in prices,” he stated, rejecting that inflation can currently be attributed to the monetary issue or to the increase in wages.