ARGENTINA: President Cristina Fernandez addresses Congress as part of her State of the Nation speech

Record ID: 447758

  • Title: ARGENTINA: President Cristina Fernandez addresses Congress as part of her State of the Nation speech
  • Date: 1st March 2014
  • Summary: SLATE INFORMATION
  • Embargoed: 16th March 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Argentina
  • Country: Argentina
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA75DKBEWXP5KSBQA5LYER23195
  • Story Text: Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez gave on Saturday (March 01) her State of the Nation speech during which she promised to sanction groups who try to inflate prices on good and services and also spoke out against anti-government demonstrations in Venezuela, saying she was defending democracy.

    "There is no justification to increase prices above the values that are not dictated by the reality and only loot the pockets of the Argentines. The executive branch will have to reach out as well as the legislative (branch) to sanction instruments that defend the users and the consumers from the abuse from all of the concentrated sectors," she said.
    Regarding Venezuela, she said that she believed in defending democracy.

    "To clarify: I am not coming here to defend the government of Venezuela, I do not come here to defend President Nicolas Maduro. I come here to defend a country's democratic system like we have done when the incident happened in Bolivia, in Ecuador and how we would do for every country in the region whether they be leftist, rightist, in the middle or in the back."
    Fernandez spoke for close to three hours and highlighted some of her government's achievements. Among them was the $5 billion settlement reached with Repsol over YPF.

    "What he said (referring to Economy Minister Axel Kicill) was that we were not going to pay what they (referring to Spanish oil giant REPSOL) wanted which is certainly correct because in the first declaration, they wanted $15 billion and in the second one they demanded $10 billion and the reality is that we closed a deal with bonds for $5 billion paid over very long instalments," she said.
    Spain's Repsol approved the settlement on Tuesday, ending a two-year dispute over the seizure of the company's operations in the country.
    Argentina hopes the agreement will help it attract foreign investment in the country, which holds one of the world's most promising shale gas and oil formation.
    Under the agreement, Repsol will receive a package of three dollar-denominated Argentine sovereign bonds with a nominal value of $5 billion. It will also receive additional bonds for a maximum face value of up to $1 billion to compensate for the market discount on the first group of bonds.
    Fernandez also repeated her call for the British government to carry out what "was ordered by the United Nations" and to sit down with Argentina to negotiate the issue of sovereignty of the Falkland Islands.

    "I believe that sooner rather than later we will be able to discuss the issue of sovereignty (referring to the Falkland Islands that Argentina calls Malvinas) as ordered by the United Nations and we reiterate today, once more, that the British government sit down and negotiate what the multilateral organization that is the United Nations ordered and to discuss the sovereignty of our Malvinas."
    Argentine forces invaded the Falklands in 1982, prompting then British prime minister Margaret Thatcher to dispatch a naval task force to retake them in a short but bloody war.
    Argentina has stepped up its calls for Britain to discuss the islands' sovereignty in recent years, saying the territory, known as the Malvinas in Spanish, rightfully belongs to it. The campaign has coincided with oil and gas exploration in the area and a deterioration in the Argentine economy.
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