Photo: Mecon Press
The Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, led the first meeting of his cabinet on Monday after confirming his candidacy for the Presidency by Juntos por la Patria (JxP), in a meeting in which all the summoned officials agreed to stress the importance of maintaining the focus on managementaccording to what they declared to the press in the framework of the meeting.
Massa summoned his team of collaborators to a meeting on the fifth floor of the Palacio de Hacienda that generated special interest, before the beginning of the electoral campaign to choose the successor of President Alberto Fernández.
One of the first officials to arrive at the Hipólito Yrigoyen 250 building in the city of Buenos Aires was the Secretary of Energy, Flavia Royonwho clarified that the minister “will continue working as usual” at the front of the portfolio, and highlighted his “political leadership” as “one of its great capitals”.
“We understand that the minister will continue working as usual, we had expectations that he would take up the challenge” to be a candidate, he said.
The Minister of Economy will sign the agreements with European countries
For his part, the Secretary of Industry, Jose Ignacio de Mendigurenassured that “the unity of the ruling party helped a lot” to strengthen the efforts that Massa has been carrying out at the international level.
He also held that “the best campaign that Massa can do is showing management” at the head of the Palace of Finance and that although everyone agrees on the need to lower inflation, the difference is that the opposition intends to achieve it through the “adjustment” and the ruling party through the “growth“.
“If Sergio has shown anything, it is that he is one of the people who manages to find consensus on difficult issues”he stressed.
The vice minister Gabriel Rubinstein stated that “this week there will be great advances with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and that Massa “very likely will give a conference when the agreement with the organization is finalized.”
In the same sense, the Secretary of Finance expressed himself, Edward Settiwho said that Massa’s presidential candidacy is seen “with very good eyes” by the IMF and the market.
Photo: Alejandro Santa Cruz.
The Secretary of Agriculture, Juan Jose Bahillomaintained that the objective of the economic team “is continue supporting the productive sectorsfundamentally to the primary sector that has suffered a drought very important”.
The Mining Secretary Fernanda Ávilasaid that the Minister of Economy and presidential candidate, Sergio Massa, asked officials to focus on the management of each of the areas and assured that in his sector there is “very positive news for the future.”
The Director General of Customs, Guillermo Michelassured that “there are a lot of things to improve” in economic matters, but remarked that “Citizens perceive that there is stability, order and responsibility on the part of the economic cabinet”.
“Our campaign is management. There are a lot of things to improve, but fundamentally there is something today that the public perceives as stability, order and responsibility on the part of the economic cabinet,” Michel told reporters.
Photo: Pepe Mateos
The secretaries of the Treasury, Raúl Rigo; Legal and Administrative, Ricardo Casal; of Commerce, Matías Tombolini; of International Financial Economic Affairs, Marco Lavagna; Development Planning and Federal Competitiveness, Jorge Neme; and from Knowledge Economy, Juan Manuel Cheppi.
Also present were the head of Advisors, Leonardo Madcur; the vice president of the Central Bank, Lisandro Cleri; the undersecretary of Commercial Policy and Management, Germán Cervantes; of Actions for the Defense of Consumers, Lucila Bueti; Analysis and Productive Planning, Gabriel Vienni; and Policies for the Internal Market, Gustavo Faskowicz; and the head of the Cabinet of Agricultural Advisors, Juan Manuel Fernández Arocena.
