Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, head of government of the city of Buenos Aires, attacked President Alberto Fernández on Thursday (15), during a press conference at the headquarters of the local executive.
Larreta says the Argentine leader has decided to put in place a curfew and suspend classes in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area without consulting him, unlike previous times. “What the president did is inexplicable. He didn’t warn us, he made a sudden decision and didn’t agree with what we had agreed to. Thus, he broke the way we work together to defeat the coronavirus, ”he said.
The city’s head of government, which has provincial status, also said he would appeal to the Supreme Court of Justice and await a favorable ruling before schools comply with the presidential decree announced on Wednesday evening. (14). The measure will take effect next Monday (19).
“I have a responsibility to do everything in my power to keep the children in school, and we will insist,” said Larreta. “We are basing ourselves on scientific data, not on the fear strategy used by the president. We know that the level of contagion in schools is very low.”
Fernández and Larreta are opposite parties. The president, as well as the governor of the province of Buenos Aires, Axel Kicillof, is a Peronist, while Larreta represents the opposition, led by former president Mauricio Macri (2015-2019). Both Larreta and Kicillof intend to run for presidential succession in 2023 and, therefore, positions taken during the pandemic are aimed at future conflicts.
As Larreta signals to the market more openings and flexibility, Kicillof has even asked Fernández for a lockdown in the province due to the increase in the number of Covid cases. According to data from the Ministry of Health, the occupancy rate of intensive care beds in the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires is almost 80%.
Larreta also criticized the vaccination campaign, which is proceeding very slowly in the country, due to a delay by the Russian laboratory Gamaleya, manufacturer of the immunizing agent Sputnik V. population, according to data from the American newspaper The New York Times. . Considering the two doses, the figure drops to 1.7%.
“The president adopted this attitude [adoção de novas restrições] because you are not sticking to your vaccination plan. Instead of being transparent and assuming the vaccines are over, he prefers to adopt measures like this. Here in Buenos Aires, we apply all the vaccines that arrive. And, from next week, we will be vaccine-free. Fernández does not admit that his plan has failed, ”Larreta added.
Vaccination in the country has also been carried out in recent weeks with doses of drugs produced by AstraZeneca and by the Chinese laboratory Sinopharm.
Around noon, there was a march in the Obelisk region, in central Buenos Aires, organized by workers in the gastronomic sector, which is affected by the six months of closure of establishments in 2020 and, now, with the obligation to close business. from 20h. Another act is planned in front of the Olivos residence, where the president resides, from 6 p.m.