Buenos Aires Governor Daniel Scioli (left) and Buenos Aires City Mayor Mauricio Macri speak at the Alvear Hotel yesterday during the annual Council of the Americas conference.
Herald Staff
Council of the Americas public gives a much cooler reception to BA Governor Scioli
Business leaders gave an exuberant welcome to centre-right PRO party leader and Buenos Aires City Mayor Mauricio Macri yesterday at the Council of the Americas seminar in Buenos Aires.
Speaking as a presidential hopeful at the exclusive Alvear Palace Hotel in the annual event that regularly gathers the country’s top political and business leaders, Macri tried to convince investors there would be major changes ahead once President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner leaves office in December 2015.
Buenos Aires province Governor Daniel Scioli was far less successful in wooing the crowd, as his decidedly pro-market speech was punctuated by calls “not to change everything” that has been done by the Kirchnerite administrations. As a result, the audience’s reaction was moderate — if not downright cool.
The speech by UNEN challenger Ernesto Sanz — who once again flirted with the idea of a deal with PRO — was equally well-regarded by investors.
After a warm introduction by Susan Segal, the head of the Council of the Americas, and the president of the Argentine Chamber of Commerce (CAC) Carlos de la Vega, Macri took the microphone and said he was worried about the economy.
“I’ve been talking to workers throughout the country. Six months ago they were saying: ‘I’ve been suspended’ or ‘overtime has been cut back’ — now they’re telling me they’ve lost their jobs.”
“Unlike 2009, when the crisis was the result of global turmoil, the current calamities are a result of government mismanagement that includes fiscal deficit and illogical blockades to trade flows,” the PRO leader added.
“We need the government to provide clear policies, not to asphyxiate us with more and more taxes,” Macri said.
He also blasted new government initiatives like the Anti-Hoarding bill and the draft to bring debt jurisdiction back to Buenos Aires — both of which are being discussed in the Senate — as proposals that would likely worsen the country’s problems.
In the words of the City mayor, these and other measures by President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s administration were affecting “the normal functioning of the economy.”
His short speech was closely followed by some 300 business leaders present in the medium-sized hall.
Speaking as a candidate, Macri said the City administration had set up plans for adults to complete their studies and entrepreneurship courses for high school students.
His speech was enthusiastically received by business leaders, who rewarded him with the biggest round of applause of the morning.
Scioli points out problems
Scioli’s effort to please business interests was, on the face of it, no less credible than Macri’s. But his alignment with the ruling Victory Front (FpV) and his relentless optimism appeared to be a hard pill to swallow for the executives, many of whom hailed from US corporations.
“True change doesn’t mean changing everything nor starting over” after Kirchnerism, Scioli stressed. “We need to keep whatever needs keeping and correct whatever needs correcting.”
In the upcoming elections, the provincial leader said, voters will need to turn “to someone who brings stability, calm and peace, a person you can trust” — appearing to talk about himself in the third person.
Once an ally of former president Carlos Saúl Menem, then second-in-command of late former president Néstor Kirchner and Buenos Aires province governor since 2007, Scioli is technically a Kirchnerite. Last year he flirted with joining Sergio Massa’s Renewal Front, but he decided to stay in the Kirchnerite camp when the deadline to register tickets for the PASO primaries expired.
This explains most of his public speeches, including yesterday’s, where he once again walked the fine line between Kirchnerism and opposition.
Flanked by Buenos Aires province Economy Minister Silvina Batakis and the head of the local Production agency, Cristian Breitenstein, Scioli pointed out three main problems in the Kirchnerite economic model: “inflation, crime and access to dollars.”
But immediately afterward he made it clear he had accepted the “responsibility” of ruling the province in this time of crisis, nodding at the fact that he hadn’t switched sides like other FpV representatives.
Recent measures ‘not enough’
Earlier in the morning, as many executives and journalists were still enjoying a cup of coffee in the lounge of the Alvear Hotel, head of CAC Carlos de la Vega highlighted the need for “clear rules” in the country’s economic activity and noted that the fiscal deficit and inflation were “one of the country’s main problems.”
De la Vega added that pro-market measures adopted by the government during the last few months — including a steep devaluation and deals with international economic organizations — were “in the right path” but that they should be extended.
He then passed the microphone onto Macri, who minutes earlier was seen joking with Cabinet Chief Jorge Capitanich about the bad performance of soccer club Boca Juniors, reportedly blaming the recent string of losses on “vulture funds.”
Among those sitting in the first row were dissident Peronist Francisco De Narváez — who beat Scioli in the 2009 midterm elections — and PRO Senator Diego Santilli.
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