Holy hand seen in Argentine president’s conversion

Financial Times

In an article written by Benedict Mander for the Financial Time’s printed edition, Juan Cruz Díaz from Cefeidas Group was quoted about Pope Francis’ influence on President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner:

“What is the point in not softening her approach?” says Juan Cruz Díaz, an analyst at Cefeidas, a political consultancy in Buenos Aires. Although there is “undoubtedly a lot of political opportunism” in her relationship with the Pope, he says that the Catholic leader has tried to calm Argentina’s acrimonious political scene and that Ms Fernández “is very moved by the fact that the Pope is an Argentine”. Clearly there are also economic imperatives behind the change of heart. Mr Díaz says Ms Fernández “doesn’t have much room left for manoeuvre” with less than two years left in office to deal with serious issues such as surging inflation and dwindling foreign exchange reserves – problems that in large part stem from unsustainable subsidies that the government is expected to cut soon as it runs out of funds. To read the full article, please click here.