Weekly Report - 06 February 2014 (WR-14-05)

Illness may have moderated the frequency of President Cristina Fernández’s outbursts, but it has not mitigated their vitriol. In a speech on 4 February, in which she announced increases to pensions and school allowances, Fernández excoriated Argentine businessmen who “take their foreign currency earnings overseas” and attacked even supportive trade unionists whose wage demands apparently show they “don’t understand what is going on”. Politically, this was very rash, prompting opposition trade unionists to rally to the support of their slighted brothers.