By Concepcion M. Moreno |
Buenos Aires (EFE).- The lawyer Sergio Massa, who has not yet completed a year as “super minister” of the Economy of Argentina, will be the sole candidate for the ruling party for the Presidency of the Nation, after the announcement made at the last minute by the Union for the Fatherland coalition.
The head of the Palacio de Hacienda once again exhibited his status as a true tightrope walker within the fierce internal division that divides the ruling front. And he took another turn when everything seemed to indicate that the pre-candidacies of the Minister of the Interior, Eduardo de Pedro, and the Argentine ambassador in Brazil, Daniel Scioli, would be the only ones from the ruling coalition to the primary elections.
Just as on July 28, 2022, Massa ended up becoming the ‘super minister’ who brought together the portfolios of Economy, Agriculture and Productive Development, on this day, the last before the closure of the electoral lists, he overcame the internal divisions of the ruling party and established himself in the unity candidate to think only about the October elections and not about the primaries.
He is the leader of the Renovation Front, the third sector with the greatest weight within the pro-government Front of All (now renamed Union for the Homeland). Where power is disputed between the Kirchnerist wing that answers to the Argentine vice president, Cristina Fernández, and the more moderate sector of Peronism aligned with President Alberto Fernández.
Sergio Massa’s career
Massa, 51, created the Frente Renovador as a space for a “Peronist heart and modernist brain” in 2013. With a view to the legislative elections of that year, in which he won a seat as a deputy, already in open opposition to the then Government of Cristina Fernández (2007-2015), of which he had been a relevant actor.
He entered the political arena at the age of 17 as a member of the liberal Unión del Centro Democrático. At the beginning of the 1990s, it was absorbed by Peronism under the Government of Carlos Menem (1989-1999).
After the severe economic crisis that affected the country at the end of 2001, another Peronist president, Eduardo Duhalde (2002-2003), appointed him executive director of the National Social Security Administration (ANSES), in charge of the state retirement system.
In 2005, he was elected national deputy, but he resigned his seat to continue leading the Anses at the request of then-president Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007).
Two years later, in December 2007, he took office as mayor of the Buenos Aires municipality of Tigre. But he left that position in July 2008 when he was summoned by President Cristina Fernández to occupy the Head of the Cabinet of Ministers.
In the midst of a serious political crisis after a strong conflict with the agricultural sector, Fernández turned to the rising political figure of Sergio Massa to “oxygenate” the image of the Government.
Peronist, official and opposition
He left the Cabinet in July 2009, in the midst of another crisis in the ruling party due to the defeat of Néstor Kirchner in the legislative elections.
After his departure from the Cabinet, he returned to the mayor’s office of Tigre. Where he achieved a good reputation as an administrator, which allowed him to get re-elected in 2011.
The victory in the 2013 legislative elections allowed him to position himself to launch his presidential candidacy in 2015. In those elections, in which the conservative Mauricio Macri (2015-2019) won, Sergio Massa came third. Behind Daniel Scioli, also a Peronist, who has now renounced his candidacy in favor of the official unity behind Massa.
For the 2019 presidential elections, Massa joined the Front of All the votes of the Renewal Front. He has contributed to the Government, from his role in the Chamber of Deputies, a key position for the search for consensus with the parliamentary opposition. He also pushing relevant bills.
Ambitious, moderate in tone and with a good relationship with businessmen, at the head of the Economy portfolio he has made countless trips to the United States for negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), for the refinancing agreement signed in March 2022.
During his tenure, inflation, the country’s biggest economic problem, remained uncontrolled. It already reaches 114.25% year-on-year after 7.7% in the month of May.
Without specifying whether he will continue to lead the Economy portfolio, Sergio Massa, who will be accompanied in the race by Agustín Rossi, chief of staff of the Government of Alberto Fernández, can now focus on the October elections for which, unlike the ruling party, the opposition will need to go to primaries.