Obedience, vaporizing commitments and photo-ops marked the definition of candidacies
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner talks with
Bunos Aires Governor Daniel Scioli and FPV presidential candidate and
his running mate Carlos Zannini aboard an helicopter after she arrived
yesterday in Rosario city to attend the National Flag Day.
By Sebastián Lacunza
Editor-in-Chief
Editor-in-Chief
Finally after three decades of
democracy, Argentine politics is being transformed into a twilight zone
where words tend to vaporize. An inflated rhetoric riddled with terms
like fascism, betrayal, Mafia, murder, Goebbels, robbery and vultures.
The perpetrators of such insults only stand by them briefly. Weeks after
having thrown the book (in the form of the Criminal Code) at a rival,
everything is buried in a photo-opportunity a shameless phrase: “After
dialogue we came to realize that our differences were not that deep,”
which is followed by a reassuring allusion to “consensus.” Since the
majority of our leaders only permit interviews by allied media, there is
no aide-mémoire.
Perhaps local politics has been imbued with the recent religious revival inviting people to “turn the other cheek.” Those on the receiving-end of the stinging accusations of Elisa Carrió generally flash an understanding smile as with somebody who has no control over what they are saying. Later the religiously inspired lawmaker grants absolution — “I love Del Sel, “ “I defend De Narváez,”‘ “Vote for the curls (Martín Lousteau).”
Meanwhile Kirchnerism is going fishing with a net. Verticalists like Aníbal Fernández or representatives of leftwing Peronism like Fernando “Chino” Navarro agree over not demanding any explanations from anybody who returns to their ranks, even if the returnee has accused them of the most heinous crimes. The opportunists cross party lines with the speed of lightning. As in the fable of the scorpion, the politician who believed he could build a presidential candidacy by luring opportunists with the aid of friendly media weeps on seeing the photo of his ephemeral partners turning themselves in at a Casa Rosada office. As things now stand, nobody should rule out the frozen image of Sergio Massa himself stretching out his hand to a Pink House official.
The unfathomable ideology of Peronism is nothing new in Argentine politics. A maxim attributed to Juan Domingo Perón expressed it clearly: “Like cats, when it seems we’re fighting, we’re reproducing.” While the leadership appears consolidated (with such diverse leaders as Perón, Carlos Menem or the Kirchners), the waters remain relatively calm.
If this week of giddy definitions has provided further proof of how Peronists spontaneously regroup with the Daniel Scioli-Carlos Zannini ticket, the behaviour of the key figures of the Kirchnerite left has been rather less elegant after years of spreading doubts about the Buenos Aires governor, a man of such determined indefinition. If an exaggerated pragmatism is understandable in Peronist governors and mayors, the overacting of certain intellectuals, social militants and human rights leaders can be pathetic.
The explanation par excellence for storing away the insults against Scioli in a drawer is that it spells obedience to a political ploy by President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. In fact, even her sternest critics recognize in her an exceptional strategic capacity. Nevertheless, this mere obedience to a leader (not only accepted but declaimed) leaves offside a sector which should represent critical thinking and militant consistency in the face of “anything goes” Justicialism.
The high ground of principles fell last week on somebody with somewhat tenuous rhetorical credentials in that area. Florencio Randazzo, a product of Buenos Aires Peronism and no outstanding militancy in leftist causes, had really been pushing the envelope in denigrating Scioli. Last Thursday he publicly stated that he was not ready to renounce his “convictions,” heralding a return to the grass roots as from December without any public posts. The audacity of presenting himself as a politician more in the Cristina mold than CFK herself has already begun to isolate him. Pre-ideological Kirchnerite exponents from both right and left have singled him out for coming to heel in the last 72 hours. Nevertheless, if Randazzo has the guts to construct a political space beyond trains, he might find Siberia barely a stop en route to the main station of Argentine politics.
The Kirchnerite ticket between a socialconservative and a veteran leftist militant is indeed potent. Its qualities are not limited to those tags. Scioli can demonstrate loyalty to his heterogeneous political bosses, to which he can now add a renewed profession of faith towards a highly popular CFK. Even if he were elected president, he would find the way back from here difficult. For his part, Zannini embraced Peronism after being in the Communist Vanguard in the 70s, followed by illegal detention during the dictatorship. The ruling party’s vice-presidential candidate is highlighted as the most genuine representative of CFK’s thinking outside the presidential family. Legal and Technical Secretary for the last 12 penguin years, Zannini has always preferred the Casa Rosada offices to the cameras. From there he has woven fluid relations with such different threads as the Kirchnerite left, traditional Peronist governors and the United States Embassy. Opinion pollsters of different stripes agree in assigning the Scioli-Zannini ticket a possible first-round victory in October, thus taking the “project” into 17 years.
Part of the explanation for this staggering figure by the standards of Argentine history can be found in the muddled reaction to Zannini’s emergence. Some opposition politicians and their journalistic and intellectual entourage have not hesitated to pigeonhole the vice-presidential candidate as a Maoist, as “Chino” was in his youth.
Anybody who has the slighlest idea of the thinking and political habitat of Zannini will know that his adhesion to the principles of the Chinese Revolution belongs to the past. In contrast, there have been learned analyses of Mao’s massacres which are supposed to be connected in some way to Scioli’s running-mate. Would it not be more rational, and also closer to voters in La Matanza, Puerto Madryn or Posadas, to look for Zannini’s vulnerable flank within his key role in the Casa Rosada since 2003? The ruling party’s limitations, however glaring, rarely seem enough to expel it from running the Executive Branch if it has to confront such ill-conceived criticism.
@sebalacunza
Perhaps local politics has been imbued with the recent religious revival inviting people to “turn the other cheek.” Those on the receiving-end of the stinging accusations of Elisa Carrió generally flash an understanding smile as with somebody who has no control over what they are saying. Later the religiously inspired lawmaker grants absolution — “I love Del Sel, “ “I defend De Narváez,”‘ “Vote for the curls (Martín Lousteau).”
Meanwhile Kirchnerism is going fishing with a net. Verticalists like Aníbal Fernández or representatives of leftwing Peronism like Fernando “Chino” Navarro agree over not demanding any explanations from anybody who returns to their ranks, even if the returnee has accused them of the most heinous crimes. The opportunists cross party lines with the speed of lightning. As in the fable of the scorpion, the politician who believed he could build a presidential candidacy by luring opportunists with the aid of friendly media weeps on seeing the photo of his ephemeral partners turning themselves in at a Casa Rosada office. As things now stand, nobody should rule out the frozen image of Sergio Massa himself stretching out his hand to a Pink House official.
The unfathomable ideology of Peronism is nothing new in Argentine politics. A maxim attributed to Juan Domingo Perón expressed it clearly: “Like cats, when it seems we’re fighting, we’re reproducing.” While the leadership appears consolidated (with such diverse leaders as Perón, Carlos Menem or the Kirchners), the waters remain relatively calm.
If this week of giddy definitions has provided further proof of how Peronists spontaneously regroup with the Daniel Scioli-Carlos Zannini ticket, the behaviour of the key figures of the Kirchnerite left has been rather less elegant after years of spreading doubts about the Buenos Aires governor, a man of such determined indefinition. If an exaggerated pragmatism is understandable in Peronist governors and mayors, the overacting of certain intellectuals, social militants and human rights leaders can be pathetic.
The explanation par excellence for storing away the insults against Scioli in a drawer is that it spells obedience to a political ploy by President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. In fact, even her sternest critics recognize in her an exceptional strategic capacity. Nevertheless, this mere obedience to a leader (not only accepted but declaimed) leaves offside a sector which should represent critical thinking and militant consistency in the face of “anything goes” Justicialism.
The high ground of principles fell last week on somebody with somewhat tenuous rhetorical credentials in that area. Florencio Randazzo, a product of Buenos Aires Peronism and no outstanding militancy in leftist causes, had really been pushing the envelope in denigrating Scioli. Last Thursday he publicly stated that he was not ready to renounce his “convictions,” heralding a return to the grass roots as from December without any public posts. The audacity of presenting himself as a politician more in the Cristina mold than CFK herself has already begun to isolate him. Pre-ideological Kirchnerite exponents from both right and left have singled him out for coming to heel in the last 72 hours. Nevertheless, if Randazzo has the guts to construct a political space beyond trains, he might find Siberia barely a stop en route to the main station of Argentine politics.
The Kirchnerite ticket between a socialconservative and a veteran leftist militant is indeed potent. Its qualities are not limited to those tags. Scioli can demonstrate loyalty to his heterogeneous political bosses, to which he can now add a renewed profession of faith towards a highly popular CFK. Even if he were elected president, he would find the way back from here difficult. For his part, Zannini embraced Peronism after being in the Communist Vanguard in the 70s, followed by illegal detention during the dictatorship. The ruling party’s vice-presidential candidate is highlighted as the most genuine representative of CFK’s thinking outside the presidential family. Legal and Technical Secretary for the last 12 penguin years, Zannini has always preferred the Casa Rosada offices to the cameras. From there he has woven fluid relations with such different threads as the Kirchnerite left, traditional Peronist governors and the United States Embassy. Opinion pollsters of different stripes agree in assigning the Scioli-Zannini ticket a possible first-round victory in October, thus taking the “project” into 17 years.
Part of the explanation for this staggering figure by the standards of Argentine history can be found in the muddled reaction to Zannini’s emergence. Some opposition politicians and their journalistic and intellectual entourage have not hesitated to pigeonhole the vice-presidential candidate as a Maoist, as “Chino” was in his youth.
Anybody who has the slighlest idea of the thinking and political habitat of Zannini will know that his adhesion to the principles of the Chinese Revolution belongs to the past. In contrast, there have been learned analyses of Mao’s massacres which are supposed to be connected in some way to Scioli’s running-mate. Would it not be more rational, and also closer to voters in La Matanza, Puerto Madryn or Posadas, to look for Zannini’s vulnerable flank within his key role in the Casa Rosada since 2003? The ruling party’s limitations, however glaring, rarely seem enough to expel it from running the Executive Branch if it has to confront such ill-conceived criticism.
@sebalacunza