The political relationship between Alberto Fernández and Cristina Fernández is already an institutional fiction. The rupture between the head of state and the Vice President was finally revealed during the serious incidents that occurred during the parliamentary debate on the agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

That day – Thursday afternoon – a fascist gang attacked CFK’s offices in the Upper House, while it was meeting with deputy Máximo Kirchner and senators Oscar Parrilli and Anabel Fernández Sagasti. The unexpected political aggression -in the form of a continuous stone- broke the windows of the office and put the vice president and the national legislators at risk.

Alberto Fernández found out about the very serious situation and wrote two chats on WhatsApp: one addressed Cristina and the other to her private secretary, Mariano Cabral. It was made available.

No one answered him, although the two were online.

The President waited a reasonable time looking at his WhatsApp and then replied to his messages. This time he used Telegram -a message network with better security and encryption- to insist on his predisposition against the fascist attacks against CFK, Máximo Kirchner, Fernández Sagasti and Parrilli.

There was no answer. Not even Secretary Cabral.

Alberto Fernández’s method of communication with Cristina is simple. The President has “Doctora” on his WhatsApp, and from there he chats to open the dialogue with his vice president. CFK can answer this way, or speak directly on the cell phone.

For several weeks, the head of state and “Doctora” have not chatted or spoken on WhatsApp or Telegram. There is a heavy silence between the two that was aggravated by the incidents on Thursday in front of Congress.

The absence of a response from Cristina’s office did not discourage the President. Alberto Fernández ordered Aníbal Fernández, Minister of Security, to take charge of the circumstances. The minister learned that CFK had withdrawn the uniformed custody of the Federal Police that operates in the Upper House and that it refused to use hydrant trucks to evict the fascist gang that was acting in front of the Parliament esplanade.

Aníbal Fernández commented on the unexpected news to the head of state, and Alberto Fernández asked the minister to guarantee -however he could- the safety of the Vice President. In 15 minutes, federal troops in civilian clothes arrived at the Senate, and rapid repressive coordination was established with the City Police.

While CFK recorded the voiceover of the video showing the results of the fascist attack on his office, Aníbal Fernández deployed a security mechanism to prevent further attacks on the vice president’s offices in the Upper House.

Alberto Fernández and CFK worried about keeping the forms until the stones in Congress. But the political fiction ended when the Vice President avoided answering the President’s messages.

Cristina had already consummated her distancing by rereading the agreement reached with the IMF and ratified her internal rupture upon learning of the negotiations that the head of the Chamber of Deputies, Sergio Massa, was undertaking with Together for Change.

Massa followed direct instructions from Alberto Fernández to achieve a large majority in favour of the agreement with the Fund, despite the pressure from Máximo Kirchner and La Cámpora who were betting on default to force a political change in the Casa Rosada.

Máximo Kirchner, La Cámpora and CFK were defeated by the robust political decision of 202 deputies. The vice president and her bishops only gathered 35 votes -between negatives and abstentions-, and that same correlation of forces is likely to be repeated in the Senate: 55 votes in favour are expected, and just 10 against the ruling party.

Not even the head of the block, José Mayans, will be by Parrilli’s side.

Cristina’s intransigent position before the IMF, her public silence in front of Alberto Fernández, the fall of La Cámpora in Deputies and the possible defeat of hard-line Kirchnerism in the Upper House the times of a new political battle in the Government accelerated.

“Cristina has not yet explained why she is against the agreement with the IMF,” said Alberto Fernández in Olivos. And he finished: “It is time for them to settle down.”