Argentina: Sergio Massa appointed "super minister" of the Economy

In Argentina, President Alberto Fernández has appointed Sergio Massa, hitherto President of the Chamber of Deputies and leader of a centrist Peronist current, Minister of Economy with extended powers.

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In Argentina, President Alberto Fernández has appointed Sergio Massa, hitherto President of the Chamber of Deputies and leader of a centrist Peronist current, Minister of Economy with extended powers.

One last chance to save the ruling coalition.

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With our correspondent in Buenos Aires,

Jean-Louis Buchet

He already didn't have much power.

There will be even less now.

Under the combined pressure of his vice-president, who is also the main political leader of Peronism, Cristina Kirchner, and the governors of this political force, President Alberto Fernández finally granted Sergio Massa a super ministry of the Economy. 

Massa, so far president of the Chamber of Deputies, was the third man of the coalition that won the 2019 elections, bringing Fernández and Kirchner his electorate from the province of Buenos Aires, estimated at 20% of the national total. .

Today, he brings to the government his political stature and his good contacts in the United States, at a time when Argentina is reeling. 

► To read also: 

Argentina: between Alberto Fernández and Cristina Kirchner, a reconciliation in trompe-l'oeil?

An unprecedented situation

Controlling production and agriculture, reduced to the rank of state secretaries, as well as the tax department and customs, with an eye on the Treasury and the Central Bank, Massa hopes to be able to bring order to an economy subject to to an inflation of 70% per year and having to respect an adjustment agreed with

the IMF

His leadership will be important, but he will have to impose it in an unprecedented situation, with a very weakened president and a vice-president whose main concern is to escape the legal proceedings against her for corruption.

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  • Argentina

  • Alberto Fernández