With Jorge Ferraresi as controller of Edesur, the mayors who asked for nationalization are gaining ground

The Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, announced on Monday the intervention of Edesur for a period of 180 days and appointed Jorge Ferraresi for the position. Although the mayor of Avellaneda has a high professional profile on energy issues, his appointment also has a political turn, with a nod to the Peronist community leaders of the third electoral section of the Buenos Aires suburbs who called for the company’s nationalization.

The claim against Edesur for the recurring power cuts is an issue that the mayors have been carrying on their shoulders for years, but which has grown in volume since the beginning of last December, when they stated that there was no longer time to wait for a response from the company. The breaking point was reached in recent weeks, with thousands of users affected during the hottest days.

Also read: The Government ordered the intervention of Edesur for 180 days

Ferraresi is an engineer graduated from the National Technological University (UTN) and one of the Kirchner mayors of the south of the Buenos Aires suburbs who remained more active in the proposals to find a definitive solution to the power cuts.

A claim of years, an ultimatum and intervention

After the announcement by the Italian company Enel of its decision to leave the country and with the massive cuts in recent weeks in the midst of a heat wave, the community leaders returned to the request for the Government to remove the concession and proposed the municipal management of the operating part of the company.

The claim took on the character of an ultimatum, when the mayors of the pro-government force itself pointed directly at the Government and demanded speed and firmness in the decisions. Many initiated actions in the Justice, even before the central Administration. Massa put overseers in Edesur, but in the suburbs they considered that the measure was scarce.

Andrés Watson’s tweet (Photo: Twitter Capture/@Andreswatsonok).

“The municipalities with the area of ​​influence of the Edesur company propose to take the lead in the investment that is needed to improve the electrical service for our neighbors,” said Nicolás Montegazza, community chief of San Vicente.

The initial project had been raised in mid-February by Martín Insaurralde, mayor of Lomas de Zamora on license, who proposed forming a consortium between the municipalities to take charge of the electricity supply. For Ferraresi, the time had come to “intervene”.

The options were on the table of the Secretary of Energy, Flavia Royón, but the final decision was in the hands of the head of the Palacio de Hacienda. Massa -attentive to the blow that resulted from the inflationary escalation in the first two months of the year and in an attempt to contain the effect that a removal of the concession would have generated in the market- first filed a criminal complaint against the company’s executives and finally decided for the less aggressive option: intervention.

Also read: Ferraresi, the vice president of the Patria institute and mayor of Avellaneda who will assume the intervention of Edesur

In fact, during the announcement, he was in charge of making it clear that the intervention is about “supervising, controlling and monitoring the execution of the works to improve the service” and that “the bare ownership of the shareholders is not affected; that the concession contract is not affected”.

“I support the decision of @SergioMassa to intervene @OficialEdesur and to designate @jorgeferraresi as auditor to supervise the execution of works to improve the electrical service. The State continues to be present and committed to working in favor of the Argentines”, the mayor of Florencio Varela, Andrés Watson, wrote on Twitter, the first to refer to the issue.