Cristina Fernandez ruffling feathers with the Falklands to mask domestic failings
Several British newspapers have turned their eyes on Argentina arguing that the challenging situation faced by President Cristina Fernandez both domestically and internationally is making her increasingly take advantage of the Falkland Islands dispute as a smokescreen to mask domestic failings.
“Faced with revolt over an ailing Argentine economy, with approval rating at record lows, a PR tour of United States universities which backfired and pay conflicts with the security and armed forces” have turned her particularly aggressive and insistent on the Falklands dispute but “aides admit she is using the issue and Islands as a smokescreen to mask domestic failings”
The Daily Telegraph recalls that the streets of Buenos Aires have been crammed with up to 200,000 people in recent marches deploring inflation, insecurity and alleged corruption. Economic growth which was 8% in 2011 and projected 3.4% this year, according to private estimates will really be as low as 1.5%.
Protectionist measures, including restrictions on purchasing dollars, have alienated the middle class while soaring public spending, much of which finances welfare schemes for the poor, has led to unofficial inflation of 24%. But government's statistics agency says the rate is 10% and researchers who publish higher figures are reprimanded.
“Marina Dal Poggetto, an economist whose Buenos Aires consultancy was fined 130.000 dollars, branded Cristina Fernandez a “populist” whose management of the economy is “short-sighted”.
Christine Lagarde, head of the IMF, has stepped in by threatening Argentina with the “red card” if it does not improve the reliability of its data within 90 days.
But “a source close to the president conceded Cristina Fernandez knows her verbal attacks over the British Overseas Territory (Falklands), the latest of which came at the UN last month, are futile, but help to hide headlines over the country's faltering economy. “She just wants to ruffle a few feathers,” the source said.
Ruffling feathers to spark nationalist pride is a method not unfamiliar to the Argentine president. Earlier this year she seized Argentina's biggest oil company, YPF, by emergency decree from Repsol, the Spanish energy firm.
“YPF is ours; it's Argentine,” read triumphant posters plastered throughout Buenos Aires. But the government is still refusing to pay the 10 billion dollars in compensation demanded by Repsol, destroying relations with Spain.
Cristina Fernandez was re-elected a year ago in a landslide victory, but her approval rating has since plummeted 40 points to just 24%, according to the latest polls. Rampant crime, inflation, corruption, nepotism, patronage, her confrontational and arrogant style have eroded popularity.
Vice-President Amado Boudou, hand picked by her, is charged with influence peddling and embezzlement. But rather than take action against him, the Argentine government response was to expropriate the money printing house at the heart of the accusations.
Critics berate populist policies, including 'Football for Everyone', the transmission of domestic football matches on state television, which has cost the government nearly 1 billion dollars since 2009.
They also accuse Cristina Fernandez of authoritarianism. She does not give press conferences, but speaks frequently in nationwide TV and radio broadcasts supposed to be reserved for “exceptional situations”.
The government has even hosted debates on constitutional reform, which could remove presidential term limits and allow President Cristina to run again in 2015. And since polls show a brief surge in her popularity whenever she engages her effusive rhetoric over the Falklands she will likely resort again to such a tactic.
“The Islands are being used for political ends,” Mario Menéndez, the general who led Argentine troops during the Falklands War, told The Daily Telegraph.
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31 comments Feed
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I hate them I hate them.
Before crying home,
So they say….
.
Very reassuring source lol.
Very reassuring source lol.'
Of course. He should know, if anyone does.
......and there was me thinking that the U.K has got it bad. Just goes to prove that there is always someone else who is worse off than you are.
and it just keeps on getting better and better:-
Vice-President Amado Boudou, hand picked by her, is charged with influence peddling and embezzlement. But rather than take action against him, the Argentine government response was to expropriate the money printing house at the heart of the accusations.
WOW!! they've got all the boxes ticked don't they?
STATE run RG media
UK FREE press
Its a difficult one, again the clues in WORDS
But we are really good at it !!!!
And after the hot air has cooled down and blown to the winds-nothing actually happens...
The worrying thing is that the effectof such rhetoric becomes less as time goes by and it looks as if CFK may need bigger distractions. She may inspire actual deeds by some of her loonier countrymen.
@16 Surely you can't be talking about “gutless and buried”?
No, no, no!!! Like one of those mime artists you see on the south bank of the Thames, just by the Tate Mordern!!
[The Daily Telegraph”
Very reassuring source lol.]]
Only the best for you guys.lol.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
8 malen
Wolf malen ,,,Wolf,
Are you the little boy who shouted Wolf…
or the one who
stuck the finger in the hole ...
eeeeeeeeeewwwwwww!!! WHO'S FINGER??????
hang on!! wait a minute!! who's hole???????
eeeeeeeeeewwwwwww!!!
poor malen .
name one that has,
the UN has lost any credence , lost any power , and lost its way,
Everyone knows that China has more English speakers than the UK, USA, Canada, Austrailia and New Zealand put together. LOL
However, everyone in the world knows of this Argentine governments tactics, and it's getting stale. Maybe they need to come up with a new angle. I know, what about blaming the evil Ghanians for taking their flag ship! LOL
Except Argentina who are exempt from UN resolutions, ie 502 which they ignored.
But it is OK for Argentina to ignore the UN but not the UK according to you lot. This is why you are too untrustworthy to talk to.
If you had complied with that resolution it would have put a lot more pressure on the UK, but as you did not it helped the UK a lot.
The resolutions regarding Argentina and the UK both state Independence as the ideal solution and state that the Islanders interests are taken into account.
Well, unlike colonialist Argentina would, the UK has ceded more autonomy to the FIs since 1982 and operate in the Islanders interests.
According to Argentina it is in the Islanders interests that their ships are not allowed in Argentine ports and it is in the Islanders interests that the Argentine government refuses (double speak for being too shitless scared to talk to the islanders) to talk to the Islanders.
But this might be interpreted differently by the UN, if ther Islanders were to speak up more and flood Ban Ki Moon with letters.
Hi there, TTT. Have you given up on ProRG_African already? What's the identity now? ProRG_MittelEuropaischer?
or blocking the sun;s heat from heating up her face.
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