Everyone who was hoping that Argentina's baloney would end next year just got hosed
Argentina watchers hoping that the country would repay its debts and come out of default once Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner left the presidency in 2016 just had their hopes dashed.
Buenos Aires Gov. Daniel Scioli, Fernandez's chosen successor and frontrunner in this year's presidential election, lashed out at opposition politicians in a speech on Wednesday.
He nailed them for seeking to pay the "vulture funds," a group of hedge funds that bought Argentine debt for cents on the dollar after it defaulted in 2001.
The lawsuit that the hedge funds brought - because Argentina's government refused to pay them - pushed the country into default last year, but no one in the ruling party seems to mind anymore.
"Just a few hours ago, they said that we needed to run out and pay the vulture funds," Scioli said.
He added that supporting payment would lead to more debt and destruction for the Argentine economy.
So yeah, it doesn't sound like he wants to pay anyone.
Argentina has been refusing to pay these hedge funds, known collectively as NML, since then. Its intransigence has become an ideological issue for the government; and unfortunately it's also one that has made Argentina a pariah of international markets and kicked it into default last summer.
Another sign? Scioli chose Fernandez's legal secretary, Carlos Zannini, as his running mate. Zannini was the brains behind the forced privatization of YPF, an oil company that the country seized from Spanish oil company Repsol in 2012.
Zannini is the man behind Argentina's attempt to skirt a US Supreme Court's ruling that it could not pay other bondholders while refusing to pay the "vultures."
So yeah, he's not going to pay anyone either.
Last year about this time, Scioli, considered a moderate member of Fernandez's camp by Argentine standards, was singing a different tune.
"I am confident that a solution can be found and that we can normalize our relationship with the international markets, defending our country, but defending it intelligently," he said then.
Of course that was right before Argentina missed the payment that sent it into default again.
What it all means is what many Argentines were considering a lost year waiting for Fernandez's exit, could turn into a lost who-knows-how-long.
Refusing to pay the "vultures" has become a part of the national project, a pillar of party ideology. There's still a chance that Scioli could lose to an opposition candidate of course. And there's also the hope that he'll change course once he's in office.
But it's not looking good, people.
Oh, and after Scioli is done with his term, Fernandez can run again. At least that's the talk in Argentina.