The headline and sub-headline only hint that The Financial Times and its reporter Benedict Mander ‘report’ on ‘midterm elections after VIP vaccines scandal’ , yet the opening paragraph features Alberto Fernández ‘speeding away to safety from stone-throwing protesters during a visit to Patagonia.’ A bit of political melodrama is never out of place, especially since the Fernández/de Kirchner ticket succeeded the failed Neo-Liberal Macri, and his J.P. Morgan wonder boy Prat-Gay, who was fired: https://www.ft.com/content/2d82da08-cb8c-11e6-864f-20dcb35cede2

Headline: Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s dominance in Argentina becomes apparent

Sub-headline: VP is leading the administration’s campaign ahead of midterm elections after VIP vaccines scandal hits President Alberto Fernández

https://www.ft.com/content/b3a693c6-85b0-475e-8510-62454639ed79

The ‘report’ from Mr. Mander’s recitation of the concatenating troubles of de Kirchner, while not reaching ‘we told you so’, but veers into something like it?

“We no longer have any doubt as to who is in control; it is Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Uncertainty is never good for investors, but neither is this realisation,” said Jimena Blanco, an analyst at Verisk Maplecroft, a risk consultancy, of the Peronist politician who clashed with investors during her two-term presidency in 2007-2015.

And who better to bring the bad news than ‘Jimena Blanco, an analyst at Verisk Maplecroft’? Their pitch to possible customers: ‘We help multinational organisations understand where, how and why their global operations, investments and supply chains are at risk, and provide the solutions and advice they need to build resilience and sustainability.’ https://www.maplecroft.com/

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Three days later, Fernández de Kirchner lashed out at Argentina’s justice system and “lawfare”, or the use of the courts to attack political enemies, when she gave testimony in one of the nine corruption cases she faces. She accused judges of persecuting her, being “rotten and perverse”, and of systematic political interference, as she angrily jabbed her index finger at the camera.

Just reading de Kirchner’s Wikipedia page, this reader wonders why she should not be serving a life sentence, such is her list of crimes!

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Roberto Saba, an Argentine lawyer, said that Fernández de Kirchner is using the weaker cases against her, the so-called “future dollars” case that accuses her government of defrauding the central bank, to attack the courts and elites. But the notion of lawfare “erodes the legitimacy of courts, which is extremely dangerous”, he warned.

Note Roberto Saba’s impeccable credentials:

https://law.yale.edu/yls-today/news/roberto-saba-95-llm-11-jsd-elected-kettering-foundation-board

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Fernández de Kirchner’s crusade against the judiciary intensified after Lázaro Báez, a close associate of the Kirchner family, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for laundering $55m of dirty money. This has direct implications for Fernández de Kirchner, as the money is alleged to have originated from corrupt schemes with the Kirchner family, claims that are being determined in a parallel case in which she is the main defendant. She denies all charges.

A bit of guilt by association ?

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The president insists nothing has changed in his relationship with his deputy. “I may have differences with Cristina . . . But I arrived with Cristina, and I will leave with Cristina [too],” he said in a recent interview.

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But Graciela Römer, a political analyst, said that the importance of winning the approaching midterm legislative elections in October has put the government “in a very delicate situation”.

An attempt to keep supporters onside also explains why the government looks likely to postpone the renegotiation of a $44bn loan from the IMF granted in 2018, she said, as a deal with the Washington institution could anger the “kirchneristas”.

“It’s increasingly clear that the person who is leading the campaign right now — if not the government itself — is Cristina Fernández de Kirchner,” said Römer.

Here are Graciela Römer’s qualifications, translated from the Spanish:

Graciela Römer has a degree in Sociology from the University of Buenos Aires, director from 1988 to the present of Graciela Römer & Asoc., A study dedicated to social research, public opinion and political consulting in Argentina and different Latin American countries. She has more than twenty years of professional experience in the institutional and corporate image field in both the private and public sectors.

BIOGRAFIA

Graciela Römer, like so many others has something to sell , her ‘expertise’. Walter Lippmann’s faith in ‘experts’ as a hedge against too much Democracy, is toxic in the political present!

Sceptical Reporter