Argentine President Alberto Fernandez wrapped up a week-long European tour on Thursday (February 6) to find support in renegotiating his country's phenomenal debt. During his visit to Paris, he told the World to have found only positive echoes during his talks with the President of the Italian Council, Giuseppe Conte, the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, the French President, Emmanuel Macron, and the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez.
When Mr. Macron received Mr. Fernandez on Wednesday, the Argentine Parliament adopted a law granting broad powers to the government of Peronist Alberto Fernandez – who succeeded Mauricio Macri on December 10, 2019 – to restructure the country's colossal debt. This amounts to 311 billion dollars (280 billion euros) – or 91% of the GDP -, including 44 billion with the IMF, while the country is plunged into a serious economic crisis.
How do you assess your first international tour?
We have fulfilled our objectives. The first was to turn to Europe again. I have always been a convinced Europeanist. A large part of our population comes from Europe, and we have historical and cultural but also economic ties with it. For a long time, we rather looked elsewhere (to the United States).
The other objective was to ask for help in solving the very serious debt problem. The country went into debt at an unusual speed, an incredible amount, and the most unusual thing is that it committed to repay in record time. What I am asking is not outrageous, my message was: I will pay the debt, but give me time to rebuild our economy. And I received massive support from my interlocutors.
The debt owed to the IMF in 2018 under the Macri government was not voted on in Congress. Is it legitimate, and is it legitimate to want to reimburse it?
The government of Mauricio Macri (2015-2019) was a democratic government, since it was elected by the people. Indeed, Congress was not consulted. You could also say to the creditors, "You knew you were getting into trouble when you invested in a security with an interest rate of 8% when globally it was 0%. When alms are disproportionate, even the saint is wary.
But you can't ask the world of financial speculation to have that kind of thinking. It was obvious that Argentina was not going to be able to repay because our economy was in recession. But the legitimacy of the authority that contracted this debt cannot be questioned. We must make do.
