Alberto Fernandez abbreviates the European tour, adds Martin Guzman to the delegation and will visit the Pope

Provided the numbers of the coronavirus pandemic run wild and make him change his plans, the president Alberto Fernandez He is already preparing for his first trip abroad this year for next Monday. The roadmap has been shortened to five days and two destinations: France, including an interview with the President Emmanuel Macron, Italy and the Vatican, where Official sources said that the president will meet again with Pope Francis.

Immersed in quarrels with his energy agent, Federico Baswaldo, a Are fighting Who will largely determine his fate in government, Economy Minister Fernandez adds to the delegation Martin Guzman.

They fixed “short tour, small delegation” Nation From the government about the president’s trip, which they keep jealously close to Fernandez.

Until yesterday at least, the same trip was there, because “the sessions can be postponed, if the cases explode, the trip is not completed,” according to the president’s spokespersons. Plus Guzmán, the advisor Felipe Sola Secretary General of the Presidency of the Republic. Julio Vittobello And the presidential spokesperson Juan Pablo Biondi He will be part of the official delegation, while the commitments already made in Spain have been postponed (a meeting was to be held alone with the socialist president Pedro Sanchez) And Portugal.

Personal meeting with him Pope FranciscoInitially planned for next Thursday, as expected by the site DetectionIt will be the second so far in his term and the first since the pandemic struck the country. The president likes to mention the Pope in his speeches and agrees to his request “Fair” distribution of the vaccine.

Ten days ago, the Pope requested that this distribution be “not based on purely economic criteria, but rather that it takes into account the needs of everyone, especially the most vulnerable and needy,” wrote the Supreme Pontiff, who met Guzmán a year ago. Two weeks in the Vatican, as part of the minister’s tour of the European Union countries in search of support in negotiations with the International Monetary Fund. Pope A. Indirect support To the Argentine position at the last Ibero-American summit, when he called for “reforming the debt structure” of poor countries.

The President attaches fundamental importance to his relationship with the Pope, who has been with him at the Climate Change Summit for days. According to official sources, the relationship is volatile, going beyond Fernandez’s continued support for decriminalizing abortion, one of his campaign promises made by Congress in the final days of last year. He maintains, however, a close personal relationship, away from the cold relationship that united the Argentine Pope and the local church with his predecessor, Mauricio Macri, Illustrated in various passages of the former president’s book First Time about his time at Casa Rosada.

In addition to meeting the Pope, Fernandez plans to meet with the Italian Prime Minister on the same day, Mario Draghi and President Sergio MattarellaBefore returning to the country scheduled for Friday, the 14th of this month.

Regarding the meeting on Wednesday the 13th with Macron, whom Fernandez also saw in February 2020 on his European tour, the question of Argentina’s debt and the economy will be the central issues. A year after that visit to Paris, Fernandez thanked his French counterpart by phone for the “essential” support that that European country provided to Argentina in reaching an agreement with private creditors, an achievement that pushed Guzmán to the summit for government consideration.

In the same hypothetical meeting, Macron gave its first support for negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, another of the central goals of the presidential round. Paying the $ 2.4 billion the state must pay the Paris Club before the end of the month will fly over the meeting, and this in the government is a matter of debate.