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Politics “A showman-economist in La Rosada: Cristina Kirchner published a 33-page document with strong criticism of Javier Milei - Infobae

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“A showman-economist in La Rosada: Cristina Kirchner published a 33-page document with strong criticism of Javier Milei - Infobae

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February 14, 2024

The former President spoke for the first time publicly about the libertarian Government. She criticized Luis Caputo, focused on debt in dollars and warned of the political forces “that could not finish her mandate.”

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Cristina Kirchner and Javier Milei

Former president Cristina Kirchner referred for the first time since the change of government to President Javier Milei in an extensive 33-page document titled “Argentina in its third debt crisis,” which the former president disseminated this Wednesday through social networks.

“On Valentine's Day and, as always, in love with the Homeland, I share with you the working document 'Argentina in its third debt crisis. Situation table'. It goes with a quote from Juan Bautista Alberdi”, he posted on X (Twitter).
The extensive document takes a historical tour of what the former president calls the debt crisis cycles that the country experienced , and places the one that began with the Government of Mauricio Macri as the third of them, which is still in process.

Likewise, he questioned officials of the current Government who were part of the Macrista administration, such as the Minister of Economy, Luis “Toto” Caputo , and the presidential advisor Federico Sturzennegger; He warned about the heavy debt taking in dollars and even reminded the political forces “that obtained their own strength that infused them with founding air, could not finish their mandates when they failed to give society the quality of life that Argentines demand.” .

In her economic analysis, the former president rejects the theory - put forward by President Milei, among others - that inflation is generated by the fiscal deficit. “We maintain that inflation in Argentina skyrockets due to the shortage of dollars and that compulsive indebtedness in said currency only aggravates said shortage by deepening the already known and structural external restriction of our bimonetary economy,” she stated.

The “working document”, as it is described, establishes three moments of the debt crisis in Argentina: the first, between 1976 and 1989; the second, between the inauguration of Carlos Menem until 2001; and the third, still in process, according to the former vice president, started in 2016. The particularity of this last process, according to Cristina Kirchner, is that it brings with it a “necessary complement: breakdown of the rule of law.”

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Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner looks at the symbolic leader's staff of Argentina's President Javier Milei during his swearing-in ceremony at the National Congress, in Buenos Aires, Argentina December 10, 2023. REUTERS/Matias Baglietto

According to Cristina Kirchner, Argentina's external debt , far from being an instrument of development, has become a cycle of "poison" for its bimonetary economy, especially under Macri 's management . At the same time, the analysis openly criticizes President Javier Milei and Economy Minister Luis Caputo , arguing that they repeat failed policies of the past, which contradicts the principle under which Milei obtained popular support. “What is the logic of repeating Luis Caputo as Minister of Economy? Why is he going to do things well now if, at the time, they had to fire him for having failed?

He even appeals to irony and shows his permanent reading of online media : “When I was finalizing this document, statements from the President emerged in relation to a new government alliance with the organic incorporation of Macriism in the legislative and executive spheres, confirming what was expressed. in the first part of this paragraph. Any journalist would use the qualification of “news in development” . You should never lose your sense of humor .”

The document also indicates that the Peronist governments have demonstrated responsible debt management and have promoted a development model based on industrialization, with high participation of workers in the GDP, reaching a level greater than 50%. On the contrary, according to the former president, neoliberal experiences have generated an increase in poverty and inequality, without offering a true business plan except for a select few. “Each neoliberal cycle ended up crystallizing a formidable transfer of income from all Argentines to the most concentrated groups in the economy.”

“A showman-economist in La Rosada”​

Cristina Kirchner is particularly critical of the President, with whom she had very good treatment during the presidential handover on December 10. He classifies the president as “ a showman-economist ” who arrived at the Casa Rosada.

“The new President declares himself a libertarian, anarcho-capitalist, enemy of the State, follower of the Austrian economic school - a current of thought that does not apply anywhere in the world -, his central proposal during the electoral campaign was adjustment and dollarization and he maintains that The main cause of inflation is the monetary issue to finance the fiscal deficit. He describes the convertibility government, Carlos Menem and Domingo Cavallo as the best government, the best President and the best Minister of Economy in history and intends to repeat privatizations, indiscriminate openings and deregulations without noticing that the world that received Carlos Menem as president has nothing to do with the current one,” he emphasizes.

Furthermore, contrary to what is usually stated, it places him “at the antipodes” of Donald Trump , whom he describes as “nationalist” and “absolutely protectionist”, and even differentiates him in personal terms: “Not only was he married 3 times, "But he has 5 children, but 'with two legs', paraphrasing President Milei." “Perhaps, only in the love of both of us for social network.



The Conversation Between Cristina Kirchner and Javier Milei During the Transfer of Command
In that section of the text, he takes the opportunity to question the two major measures that the Government has taken so far: the DNU and the Omnibus Law, which was finally stopped in the Chamber of Deputies. “Both instruments constitute a package of modifications to the Argentine legal system tailored to the main business groups and, what is even more serious, a covert reform of the National Constitution,” he points out.

"So far, the new government has only deployed a ferocious adjustment program that acts as a true destabilization plan and that not only feeds back the inflationary spiral, placing society on the brink of shock, but will also inevitably cause an increase in unemployment and social desperation in a kind of planned chaos. It is more than evident that in the President's head the only stabilization plan is dollarization. The measures adopted are not explained in another theoretical framework,” he adds.

New criticism of Alberto Fernández​

In another part of the document, Cristina Kirchner once again distanced herself from the last Government, despite having been vice president. Although he highlighted the management of the COVID-19 pandemic and the restructuring of private debt bonds, he questioned the agreement with the IMF signed in 2022 which, he said, “not only validated the scandalous loan obtained by Mauricio Macri's administration, but "which condemned the government to a kind of agony by being forced to implement the policies dictated by the multilateral organization that ordered, among other things, a devaluation of the exchange rate above the inflation rate, feeding it back into a vicious and lethal circle." .

In any case, he detached himself from the decision-making by ensuring that the Frente de Todos “had an operation characterized by unrestricted attachment to the institutions” and that “during the first years, the most important measures for the direction of the Government were They argued between the different sectors, each one established a position and finally the President was the one who had the last word and made the final decision .

There, he quoted two verbatim sentences from former President Alberto Fernández in which, in statements to the media, he stated that he was the one who made the final decisions.

Cristina Kirchner's conclusions and the warning from past experiences​

After a long analysis of economic models and Argentine experiences, the conclusions of the document make clear the view that the former president has on the current situation and even leaves a series of proposals that could well be part of a political program.

There, he warns that the third debt crisis that the country is experiencing “has not yet reached its climax,” and recalled that “these processes develop for years to finally trigger a crisis with consequences that we have already known in 1989 and in 2001, but they are never equal due to the historical, political and institutional context. It goes without saying that the measures adopted by the government that began on December 10, 2023, far from avoiding it, could accelerate this process.”


Despite clarifying that he does not intend to question “the legitimacy” of President Javier Milei by virtue of the 56% of the votes he obtained in the runoff, he recalled that in the general elections, with all the forces in competition, he obtained 30% of the votes. , the same percentage as in the PASO. And, there, he leaves a strong warning: “The legitimacy of origin given by the popular vote should not make the current president lose sight of the legitimacy of exercising government management, which can only be achieved by improving the quality of life.” of the Argentines. In this sense, it is worth remembering that other political forces, at different stages, that obtained their own strength that infused them with founding air could not finish their mandates when they failed to give society the quality of life that Argentines demand .

Likewise, he maintained that "all the measures adopted so far are repetitions of policies already implemented in the past, including some of them applied with Parliament closed by the dictatorship."

Also in the conclusions he rehearses a kind of diagnostic coincidences with the current Government, although not on the path to solving the problems. For example, he states that it is “essential to discuss a simplified tax system with few taxes in quantity - to order and facilitate life, especially for SMEs that generally keep very domestic accounting and are the main generators of work in Argentina. - but very strict in its compliance with regulations that increase the perception of risk due to avoidance and evasion.”

Furthermore, he warns that "Argentina must review the efficiency of the State, and that the slogan of the 'present State' is not enough to solve the country's problems, which are too many," as well as "the need to rethink the current public system of health”, and even states that “ it is unavoidable to seriously discuss a labor updating plan that provides answers to the new forms of labor relations that have emerged in light of technological advances and a pandemic that has disrupted everyone.”

Beyond the fact that in her farewell as provisional president of the Senate she had said that she would continue working in politics from the Patria Institute, with the document the former president returns to public consideration, at a time when the Government is barely two months old and Peronism seeks to reorganize itself .
 
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