Argentina “Cannot Pay its Debt Under Current Conditions” – President-elect Fernández

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – President-elect Alberto Fernández announced on Thursday that Argentina cannot “pay the debt in its current condition,” and said once again that it will need to engage in “difficult negotiations” with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“It is not a whim of Alberto Fernández to state the difficulty we are facing. The world must understand that we cannot pay under the current conditions of the Argentinian economy. Argentina has to resume production and exports in order to meet its obligations,” Fernández said in an interview with former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa.

As part of the program “Conversando con Correa” (Talking to Correa), which is broadcast on the Russian RT signal, Fernández targeted President Mauricio Macri and the IMF: “Macri and the Fund are to blame for the situation we are in because we warned him about what was happening. They have granted us 45 billion and 40 billion leaked out of the financial system,” he insisted.

In any case, the president elected by the Frente de Todos is confident that he will be able to “negotiate” because he is willing to “pay”.

“This debt was incurred in a democratic government. Before there were debts incurred in the dictatorship and we also paid them. Now we have nothing to say because it happened in a democratic government. But the international community understands us and they will support us,” he added.

Fernández lamented that “in recent years Latin America has been disintegrating,” calling for “unity” as a defense against “the excesses that globalization can entail” and assured that he will work to “rebuild UNASUR”.

In Fernández’s view, in Latin America, and in Argentina in particular, there is a dispute between “a society that wants to grow and a society that conforms to the status quo. It is a sector that needs nothing to change”.

He added: “In Argentina, this society grew from Peronism, a movement that entitled a part of society that had been forgotten. But the day Peronism was born, anti-Peronism was born, and that fight continues to this day”.

In tune with that perspective but in reference to the election results, he argued that “there is a third of Argentinians” who voted for Macri “because of their desire to belong to a place where they are not allowed to belong”.

Fernández also stressed the role of his running mate and vice-president-elect, Cristina Kirchner: “The work for unity would not be possible without Cristina, because she is the leader most followed by Argentinians. We started working to bring everyone together and everyone had the will to join, and we all realized that lack of unity led to defeat. It was a gesture of generosity, of maturity [of Cristina] and it was a strategic solution”, he remarked.

Source: Clarín