MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Buenos Aires City subway strike enters eighth day; Macri blames Cristina

”Subway delegates have been created by the Kirchnerites and respond to a Kirchnerite order” claimed Macri

Buenos Aires subway splinter workers union announced Friday evening that they failed to reach an agreement with licensee company Metrovías and that the strike will continue for another 24 hours.

After the six-hour meeting, the union delegates announced that they have also decided to “disprove” the mandatory conciliation issued by Buenos Aires City government, because it considered that it “lacks competence” in the conflict.

The subway strike will reach its eighth day on Saturday and probably become the longest strike in Argentine history.

After the negotiations failed and a week of traffic chaos, Buenos Aires City Mayor Mauricio Macri gave a press conference in which he blamed President Cristina Fernández for the subway strike.

The mayor stated that the subway workers dissident organization was “created by the Kirchnerites” and assured that the country “is heading to a Chávez' style model.”

“I'm not afraid. I'm being persecuted and will be, but don't mess with the people,” Macri affirmed and denounced that “the Government's vocation is to mess with those who don't think the same way as they do to head towards an only-think society.”

“The subway delegates have been created by the Kirchnerites and respond to a Kirchnerite order” emphasized Mayor Macri.

The seven day strike has left anywhere from 600.000 to a million daily commuters with out a basic system of transport in the Argentine capital causing chaos in traffic and frustrating the stressed citizens. An estimated three million people come in everyday ot Buenos Aires.

The workers union is demanding a 28% increase but the real heart of the conflict is the ongoing battle between President Cristina Fernandez and Mayor Macri, who is the main leader of the opposition and the candidate with greatest chances for the 2015 presidential election.

The central government wants to transfer the management of the subway system to the city of Buenos Aires but Macri will only accept them if they do not include the subsidies. Otherwise, among other things he would be forced to double the current fare.

On Friday morning Macri reiterated the need for investment to be made in the city’s subway system and underlined that until funds were found, his administration would not take control of the underground train lines, “I cannot take control of the subway in these conditions”.

He added “I can’t very well tell people, ‘we are going to take control of the subways and to do so, close kindergartens’”.

The statements came shortly after the City Mayor suggested the national authorities allow him to “go to the BID (Inter-American Development Bank) and take out a 30-year loan to cover all of the work that is needed and start from there.”

Furthermore, Macri pungently echoed recent declarations made to the press by his administration's Deputy-Mayor María Eugenia Vidal by stating: “We just don’t have the means to finance this”.