This Thursday, the pre-candidate for national deputy for Avanza Libertad, José Luis Espert, became the third guest of Filo.elecciones, the cycle of interviews with the main pre-candidates of the AMBA for the next legislative elections led by Julio Leiva.In dialogue with Filo.news, he spoke about his most urgent projects, dollarization of the economy, social plans, foreign debt, his discrepancies and agreements with Javier Milei -another of the great figures of his bloc-, and issues of current agenda such as feminism, legalization of marijuana consumption, environment, among others. Asked about the most urgent bill he would promote in Congress, the politician said he plans to “transform Mercosur into a simple free trade agreement” so that “Argentina stops being a ‘hose’ of the world and goes on to use the world as a partner.” On the dollarization of the economy, the economist denied that this was a solution for the country: “It’s like a coin with two sides,” he said in reference to the national peso. “People use the peso to make a transaction but neither save in pesos nor think in pesos and that is a consequence of the very high inflation that exists. The dollar fever is the flip side of the ‘desfiebre’ not fever for the peso,” he said.
In that line he affirmed that the cause of Argentine inflation is the structure of the State: “You have a state of such a gigantic size that there is no way to pay for it. The people of laburo are demolished paying taxes. It does not reach that mountain of taxes, so (the State) has to issue money, issue debt and all that ends in inflation in the long run,” he said. Despite this statement, the pre-candidate remarked that he would not cut social plans or pensions: “There are always exceptions to the rule, some tormentor living on plans, a lot of criminal, facineroso in the style of Gravois, Persian and all that mafia. But the bulk of the beneficiary of the plan is a person, a merchant, a turner, a carpenter, a welder, a plumber who was left out of the system as a result of the crises that have been demolishing Argentina over time,” he acknowledged. On the payment of the external debt and the agreement with the IMF, Espert said: “In the short term I would tell you that it would be important not to ‘default’ the debt to the Monetary Fund. But why? Why do I like to pay off debt? I believe that commitments have to be made and answered. The Monetary Fund is a cooperative of countries. It’s nice to see him as the bad guy in the movie, but there’s a lot to talk about there,” he said. I believe that ‘defaulting’ on the debt to the fund is to be left out of the planet. But I don’t think it’s right to be adjusting grandparents and public employees where they pay righteous for sinners. There are very good public employees,” he added in line with the issue. Later he referred to Javier Milei and minimized the rumors of estrangement despite representing the same block, he in Province and his partner in the City of Buenos Aires: “Javier is doing very well in the City and I love it. Hopefully he will be barbaric. During 2020 and 2021 we did a lot of campaigning together, but then we couldn’t. But it’s all good,” he said.
Despite reaffirming his agreements with his colleague, Espert disagreed on Milei’s remarks about global warming: “Yes, we have differences. Yes, of course. I believe there is global warming. I think the environmental issue deserves attention, it deserves concern,” he said in a dialogue with this media. During the talk, Espert referred to his support for Horacio Rodríguez Larreta during the 2019 elections and explained: “Seeing that Kirchnerism was going to win the National and was going to win the province, it seemed important to me that in the capital of the country there was another political sign, so that it balanced a little. In addition to the fact that Larreta in the City has done a good management and believed him much superior to the candidate of the Frente de Todos, “he responded. In that line, he described the current government and considered: “I think it would be important for Kirchnerism to lose the 2023 election and that Argentina does not have more Kirchnerism, because I believe that populism destroys societies. To that end, it seemed important to me to defeat Kicillof in this election,” he said. Then he expanded his consideration of the Governor of Buenos Aires: “I think he is a disastrous person for the country, because of the thoughts he has, beyond the assumption that he is responsible for having ruined the province in epidemiological and economic matters,” he said and confessed that although the opposition bloc he wanted to form did not prosper he found that cadres like Larreta, Patricia Bullrich and Mauricio Macri were “very much in tune” with his ideas. In turn, he referred to the former chief of staff macrista, Marcos Peña, who at some point indicated that Espert was functional to Kirchnerism: There was not a guy who Kirchnerism more than when Néstor and Cristina governed than me. But this imbecile of Peña said that I was functional to Kirchnerism and many people believed it. Proposing a front against Kirchnerism showed once again that I as a Kirchnerist have as much as an astronaut,” he said. Later he addressed issues of the young agenda, such as the recreational use of marijuana. In this regard, the pre-candidate considered that he is “in favor of free consumption” but clarified that he rejects the project acts for its legalization since “people are shitting with hunger, they are tired of paying taxes, the boys want to leave the country, what do you come to talk about marijuana. Now the personal position is in favor of decriminalizing consumption. Not to mention for medicinal purposes, of course.”
On cryptocurrencies he confessed that “he does not understand much” but that it seems to him that it is a topic “to pay close attention”: “What I do see as very good is the environmental issue. Printing paper involves a lot of pollution. On the other hand, crypto is something virtual that does not pollute. I’m very interested in that side,” he said. Then he expanded on the issue of the environment and appealed to his role as an agricultural producer: “I am very much in favor of science. Let’s see, in many countries there is mining, in few there is pollution, like what is here by mining. Well, it means we’re doing something wrong. It’s not that mining is bad,” he said. In the end, Julio proposed a “ping pong” of questions and answers based on five bills that are being debated and that could enter Congress soon. On the lowering of the age of imputability, Espert said he was in favor and that this measure could be one of the ways to combat the political problem of insecurity. He also came out in favor of the right to a dignified death unless the decision is made by a third party. On the contrary, he said he was against the reduction of the working day and that instead it would be necessary to generate “more laburo” and that “the children do not leave the country.” With the same foundation, he said he was against the extension of paternity leave since “we have to laburar”. On the wetlands law, he said he was in favor and mentioned the invasion of capybaks in the Norderlta area.Finally, he was concerned about the problem of femicides and named his second candidate, Carolina Píparo, who works on the issue. Both agree that “the bureaucracy” around the issue did not achieve effective solutions and that the way to solve it is created alliances with the security forces and the Justice.
