News of Martín Gambarotta

Martín Gambarotta

Tension in the Frente de Todos coalition.

The Cabinet creaks

26-12-2020 09:47 The president is trying to drive home the message that he will not be steamrolled by the Kirchnerite wing into sacking half of his Cabinet.

by Martín Gambarotta

POLITICS AND THE PANDEMIC

The vaccine conversation

19-12-2020 08:42 These glitches and delays add up to negative headlines. Opposition leaders accused the government of deliberately keeping the public in the dark about the pending approval of the vaccine for those over 60.

by Martín Gambarotta

Alberto Fernandez, Cristina Kirchner, Mauricio Macri and Rodriguez Larreta.

POLITICS & THE PANDEMIC

2020: Don't look back

12-12-2020 09:33 For all the pain caused by a killer disease coming out of nowhere, even it has not been able to put an end to Argentina's infamous political rift. Tensions, however, are also hitting both coalitions.

by Martín Gambarotta

The initial congeniality between Larreta and Alberto is giving way to confrontation as next year's midterms draw ever closer.

POLITICS & THE PANDEMIC

There's only one Maradona - Argentina after the funeral

05-12-2020 10:22 For most of the year, Fernández and Rodríguez Larreta navigated the pandemic together, avoiding confrontation. But that initial congeniality is giving way to confrontation as next year's midterms draw ever closer.

by Martín Gambarotta

Politics & the pandemic

In Maradona's shadow

28-11-2020 13:52 Diego Maradona has died and everything else in Argentina will now have to wait.

by Martín Gambarotta

Coalitions are made up of political parties, but essentially they are about people interacting. Political parties can be difficult – and so can people.

POLITICS & THE PANDEMIC

Allies not speaking to each other

21-11-2020 10:33 Coalitions are made up of political parties, but essentially they are about people interacting. Political parties can be difficult – and so can people.

by Martín Gambarotta

President Alberto Fernández is facing questions about the executive performance of his Cabinet and not only from the opposition.

POLITICS & THE PANDEMIC

You better shape up (the Cabinet)

14-11-2020 10:33 President Alberto Fernández is facing questions about the executive performance of his Cabinet and not only from the opposition.

by Martín Gambarotta

THE WEEK IN REVIEW

The week: All eyes on America, with Argentina no exception

06-11-2020 00:01 The world is watching aghast at the wild way in which the US presidential elections are unfolding. Argentina, part of a pandemic-stricken world waiting to see what will happen, is no different.

by Martín Gambarotta

Alberto Fernandez, President of Argentina and Cristina Kirchner, vice president.

POLITICS & THE PANDEMIC

Letter from CFK

31-10-2020 09:05 At face value CFK's statement was packed with support for the president. And the Cabinet? Not so much

by Martín Gambarotta

POLITICS & THE PANDEMIC

Peronism tries to strike back

24-10-2020 08:52 On October 17, the national government tried to regain the initiative. To some observers, Loyalty Day came and passed with some subtle but notable observations.

by Martín Gambarotta

POLITICS & THE PANDEMIC

Macri rides protest wave

17-10-2020 09:28 Protesting is a right. Trying to figure out the significance of a specific protest is another matter.

by Martín Gambarotta

The ruling coalition is suddenly hit by turbulence too.

POLITICS & THE PANDEMIC

Coalitions or collisions?

10-10-2020 09:27 It’s too early to tell if this stress will snowball into a breakdown leading to, say, a sweeping Cabinet reshuffle sponsored by the Kirchnerites, forcing out members of the president's inner circle.

by Martín Gambarotta

POLITICS & THE PANDEMIC

Supreme suspense in court

03-10-2020 09:49 These are busy days for the Supreme Court, which is caught in the middle of the fierce political polarisation that has dominated Argentine politics since the rise of Kirchnerismo in 2003.

by Martín Gambarotta

POLITICS & THE PANDEMIC

Unemployment, the other pandemic

26-09-2020 10:15 Will this relentless agitation unleash the kind of volatility that rattles the very standing of the government, less than a year after winning the elections?

by Martín Gambarotta

Argentina’s exasperating affair with the dollar is a recurring issue.

POLITICS & THE PANDEMIC

Dollar blues

19-09-2020 09:51 Argentina’s exasperating affair with the dollar is a recurring issue.

by Martín Gambarotta

Protests in Argentina are nothing new, but a full-blown police mutiny over pay and working conditions is relatively rare.

POLITICS & THE PANDEMIC

Police mutiny mayhem

12-09-2020 08:54 Anyone familiar with Argentina knows that it is a land of political agitation and volatility. Protests are nothing new, but a full-blown police mutiny over pay and working conditions is relatively rare.

by Martín Gambarotta

POLITICS & THE PANDEMIC

A new low for the Lower House

05-09-2020 09:15 Monday was a big day for Alberto Fernández’s Peronist government, as it heralded its debt deal with foreign creditors. But the joy lasted only a day and celebrations were all but buried by news in Congress.

by Martín Gambarotta

Military coups are a thing of the past, but presidents struggling to finish their mandates are not.

POLITICS & THE PANDEMIC

Knocking on the Senate's door

29-08-2020 08:46 Military coups are a thing of the past, but presidents struggling to finish their mandates are not.

by Martín Gambarotta

POLITICS & THE PANDEMIC

Protest or PRO test?

22-08-2020 10:10 The uproar surrounding the court system reform is another test of the national government's resolve.

by Martín Gambarotta

It’s difficult for a government to gain any kind of momentum during a pandemic.

POLITICS & THE PANDEMIC

Vaccine ventures

15-08-2020 09:44 It's difficult to gain any kind of momentum during a pandemic. Yet there are some signs the government is regaining the initiative.

by Martín Gambarotta

DEBT, DEFAULT. DEAL

Goodbye default my old friend

08-08-2020 08:44 The ultimate question is if this agreement will spare Argentina the ordeal of holdout bondholders – Guzmán will have conjured a miracle if there are none to worry about once this deal is done.

by Martín Gambarotta

The judicial reform bill will truly test the ruling coalition's capacity for the first time since President Fernández took office late last year.

POLITICS & THE PANDEMIC

Justice (reform) for all

01-08-2020 10:04 The judicial reform bill will truly test the ruling coalition's capacity for the first time since President Fernández took office late last year.

by Martín Gambarotta

POLITICS & THE PANDEMIC

Don't plan on a plan from Fernández

25-07-2020 08:20 By shunning “plans” Fernández is emulating his former boss, late former president Néstor Kirchner, who preferred to deal with issues as they came along without committing to a plan that could be easily derided.

by Martín Gambarotta

The bipartisan civility of those in charge is holding up – for now. Buenos Aires City Mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, a leader of the opposition centre-right coalition, met with Buenos Aires Province’s Kirchnerite Governor Axel Kicillof on Monday to agree a plan to loosen restrictions, which will kick in next week.

POLITICS & THE PANDEMIC

Coalitions under stress

18-07-2020 08:37 Political rivals are accusing each other of being “haters” – but of course, one person's hater is another person's hero. The pressure, however, is not just external.

by Martín Gambarotta

The political arguing will never go away in Argentina.

POLITICS & THE PANDEMIC

The arguing never stops

11-07-2020 08:13 The arguing will never go away. At times it pauses briefly when the public is hit by unsettling news on the coronavirus front, but then, in no time at all, the bickering begins once more.

by Martín Gambarotta

The political volatility beetween the City and the Province of Buenos Aires has not gone away.

POLITICS & THE PANDEMIC

Metropolitan area blues

04-07-2020 07:29 The display of bipartisan civility, even with disagreements behind the scenes between Buenos Aires City and Province, is now routine. Yet the volatility has not gone away.

by Martín Gambarotta

Kicillof and Larreta are showing manners and are holding regular meetings to sort out their differences before announcing decisions together.

100 DAYS OF QUARANTINE

Hibernation time

27-06-2020 08:09 The pandemic is a tremendous challenge for the metropolitan area. Only history will explain the true extent of economic devastation in the region.

by Martín Gambarotta

It’s not clear if the president is deliberately swamp- ing the media with interviews or if he is simply hooked on speaking to the press without a clear communica- tions strategy in mind. But when a president speaks there is no choice but to listen up.

POLITICS & THE PANDEMIC

Fernández TV

20-06-2020 09:02 Time will tell if the delays with the Vicentin and wealth tax bills are a deliberate strategy by the president to buffer the complaints by the lobbies who have historically clashed with Kirchnerismo.

by Martín Gambarotta

President Alberto Fernández, the country’s centre-left Peronist leader, has announced the state takeover of the debt-saddled soy crusher Vicentin.

POLITICS IN THE PANDEMIC

Nationalise this

13-06-2020 08:08 A raw nerve has been touched that is at the centre of Argentina's perpetual political rift – to the nation’s business community the Peronist administration has crossed a line, trying to grab a private-sector company which has never been under state control.

by Martín Gambarotta

The lockdown has a stifling effect on the hearts and minds of the population and there’s still winter to slog through.

POLITICS & THE PANDEMIC

Lockdown limbo

06-06-2020 09:32 Coronavirus has put everyday life, or the remnants of it, in a loop. Home is where the office lies.

by Martín Gambarotta

POLITICS & THE PANDEMIC

Lockdown: complainers will complain

30-05-2020 09:16 The debt drama will escalate if the talks fail to make progress and some bondholders decide to accelerate the situation, which could see them eventually taking the republic to court in the middle of a pandemic that is crippling for the economy.

by Martín Gambarotta

Buenos Aires, City and Province, Kicillof and Rodriguez Larreta.

PANDEMIC POLITICS

Buenos Aires versus Buenos Aires

23-05-2020 09:21 Horacio Rodríguez Larreta is under pressure because he needs to control the epidemic in the metropolis. Otherwise his reputation could be tarnished – possibly even ruined.

by Martín Gambarotta

Most leaders holding office have had no choice but to close ranks behind Fernández.

PANDEMIC PONDERINGS

Still quarantined after all these days

16-05-2020 08:00 If the funds are playing the instability game to trigger a political crisis, it’s not happening right here and now. Most of the centre-right opposition leaders holding office have had no choice but to close ranks behind Fernández, who is extremely popular according to polls.

by Martín Gambarotta

The incessant prodding for a laxer quarantine trumpeted by part of the mainstream media.

ARGENTINA'S DEBT WOES

Debt-xit time

09-05-2020 10:01 The incessant prodding for a laxer quarantine, trumpeted by part of the mainstream media, is peppered by the pot-banging cacerolazo protests.

by Martín Gambarotta

Opposition and government with masks arguing? One thing yellow., one thing blue?.

Politics in the pandemic

Quarantine quarrels

02-05-2020 09:19 The president has reflexes but he often pauses before making a decision, creating a momentary vacuum that leaves room for misinformation to viralise.

by Martín Gambarotta

Argentina is staring default in the face once again. The country has been here before, but never with the world economy cracking up in the middle of a pandemic.

ARGENTINA’S DEBT WOES

Pay no more

25-04-2020 11:57 Argentina is staring default in the face once again. The country has been here before, but never with the world economy cracking up in the middle of a pandemic.

by Martín Gambarotta

There are no real signs of unrest. Most of the population is donning face masks and according to the government, those who are out and about are carrying out essential tasks with the required permits.

CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

Face mask days

18-04-2020 10:47 Argentina’s coronavirus quarantine has been extended until April 26 and the use of facemasks is now compulsory in many parts of the country, including Buenos Aires City.

by Martín Gambarotta

Guzmán announced Monday that bond payments worth more than US$8 billion issued under Argentine law, due this year, will now be postponed until 2021.

A WEEK IN THE PANDEMIC

A long-haul plight

11-04-2020 10:28 Is anybody paying attention to Argentina’s debt drama with the entire world economy hurting so badly from a virus?

by Martín Gambarotta

Is conflict coming back? There are signs – one this week was the decision by the construction arm of steel giant Techint to terminate the contract of 1,400 construction workers.

LA GRIETA Y LA PANDEMIA

Between a Rocca and a hard place

04-04-2020 09:54 The trade unions still consider themselves to be the backbone of Peronism and Fernández is leaning heavily on the labour machine to pull through the crisis.

by Martín Gambarotta

The president is scoring high approval ratings right now. But more difficult times lie ahead.

LIFE IN THE PANDEMIC

Alberto the anchorman

28-03-2020 11:25 With millions staying at home, watching television is now a national sport once again, and the president has turned himself into the anchorman of an anxious nation.

by Martín Gambarotta

The coronavirus emergency has wiped out practically all other political issues here.

ON THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

Emergency on Planet Earth (that includes Argentina)

21-03-2020 08:34 The ultimate fear in Argentina, apart from the health consequences, is that a lockdown will definitively break the back of an economy that was already bleeding badly and burdened with debt.

by Martín Gambarotta

What the virus can alter is Argentina’s economic outlook for 2020, just when a new Peronist government was trying to jumpstart the economy. Winter in Argentina could bring a brasher coronavirus panic that could prompt further economic misery.

A WEEK IN ARGENTINA

Argentina’s viral blues

14-03-2020 08:58 The country’s debt drama will now play out as the coronavirus spreads. Still a virus will not change the fact that Argentina is running out of money.

by Martín Gambarotta

The president chose not to directly pick a fight with the farmers during his congressional address. But effectively soybean export duties have been increased from 30 percent to 33 percent.

March is the most crucial month

07-03-2020 13:42 State television coverage showed that there is a nascent presidential inner circle without any apparent ties to the vote-getting Kirchnerite wing of the coalition commanded by Vice-President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

by Martín Gambarotta

Guzmán has ruled out deploying extreme austerity to meet the fiscal targets that would allow the country to immediately pay down debt, but the government’s recent decision to scrap index-linked pension hikes will effectively save it money, as favoured by the IMF.

DEBT RESTRUCTURING

Guzmán’s long March

29-02-2020 08:56 Argentina’s president is trying to sort out the country’s debt problems politically. Still, in the end, it will all be about money – the success of the ‘gently does it’ approach hinges on the bondholders accepting a considerable haircut.

by Martín Gambarotta

The IMF said this week that Argentina's debt burden is unsustainable.

THE IMF AND ARGENTINA

With the IMF on our side...

22-02-2020 12:57 The bondholders still don’t know what kind of a haircut they will be asked to suffer but Guzmán is trying to meet a March 31 deadline. A long next month lies ahead.

by Martín Gambarotta

Will the private bondholders get the message? Will the hedge funds oblige and yield? It doesn’t look like it.

DEBT RESTRUCTURING

Mission: impossible (to pay debt)

15-02-2020 11:09 The government’s biggest challenge is to buy time without defaulting on its humongous debt. Will the private bondholders get the message? Will the hedge funds oblige and yield?

by Martín Gambarotta

The new Argentine diplomats are doing their work. But the debt battlefield is far grittier right now for the republic’s lieutenants.

NEW ERA IN ARGENTINA

All is not quiet on the debt restructuring front

08-02-2020 10:15 Debt is Argentina’s disease. President Alberto Fernández, a Peronist, has said that the nation is now in “intensive care” treatment for its debt addiction. The president has also likened trying to restructure Argentina’s mammoth debt to playing poker with the good fellas. You try pulling a convincing poker face while in intensive care without your cards falling to the ground.

by Martín Gambarotta

On Wednesday the Chamber of Deputies approved a bill granting Economy Minister Martín Guzmán the prerogative to renegotiate Argentina’s mammoth debt.

NEW ERA IN ARGENTINA

The long and winding debt

01-02-2020 08:40 Despite the constant chestthumping in the media, the warring factions united to approve Guzmán’s bill. At least the minister now has a card in his pocket that he can show the world whenever he feels like it.

by Martín Gambarotta

Guzmán’s approach is to tread carefully and show the kind of manners that global financiers can relate to.

NEW ERA IN ARGENTINA

Boy, you’re going to carry that debt a long time

25-01-2020 10:04 Keeping calm and carrying on when you owe the world billions is all very well, but the markets tend to get hysterical when financial deadlines near. At some point, Martín Guzmán will have to make an offer.

by Martín Gambarotta

Alberto Fernandez and Axel Kicillof as Simon&Garfunkel.

NEW ERA

Hello default my old friend

18-01-2020 10:28 Kicillof has set the stage. But soon Alberto Fernández and Guzmán will be the leading actors. Or is this just Kicillof’s play?

by Martín Gambarotta