Presidential re-election intention or parody?

The president who didn’t want to be is a book in which Silvia Market asks (and answers): Alberto Fernández couldn’t, didn’t know or didn’t want to? Did Cristina choose him because she knew he was weak? What was the deal they made? How did the leader of the Frente de Todos protect herself to avoid her betrayals? Is Alberto a Peronist? Questions certainly more than appropriate judging by the current reality of our first president. A reality far removed from the needs of an increasingly anxious population that suffers from the worst government in Argentine democratic history, unable to contain the scourge of inflation and the calamity of drug trafficking. Added to this is a serious crisis of the entire public education system, often with the aggravating circumstance of inappropriate encouragement to “militant education”. These are very concrete realities that the president refuses to acknowledge publicly.

Alberto Fernández is heading towards his last 294 days in office. He does so empty of power, with only five of the ministers who were sworn in on December 10, 2019, and virtually rooted in his own (and misguided) beliefs that leave him more alone than ever. The others, for various reasons, gradually resigned and left a national cabinet that never lived up to it. No own political powerwithout money and with inflation impossible to contain, the question we must ask ourselves is whether we are really facing a re-election bid Or is it just a parody?.

In the current situation of the president, the theory of the short sheet can be applied: in any case, something will be missing, as happened at the national table of the Frente de Todos, with fights of all kinds that are kept indoors for now, where CFK continues to be the undisputed leader of a space heading for its most resounding failure.

In the light of concrete and verifiable information from our economy, Alberto Fernández’s chances of being re-elected are practically nil, as well as those of any of the possible FdT candidates. A single piece of information is enough to confirm this: the average salary measured in dollars in 2012 was $1,450; in 2015, USD 1,230; in 2017, USD 1,689; in 2019, USD 1,065; and is currently $462. For a people accustomed to voting with a full refrigerator, the reality of the gondolas is far from what the president says (comparing, for example, the supposed growth of the Argentine economy with that of China). Alberto Fernández will end up being a president to forget, captured by his own incompetence and lack of judgment in making decisions, what a president does from the moment he gets up until he falls asleep: choose between several options in the face of problems of all kinds, types and colors.

Alberto, as president, is a mediocre chief of staff. He will never be able to move away from the role he was able to hold in the shadow of Néstor Kirchner, a leader with too much character and ambitions who paved the way for his subordinates. On the contrary, Alberto is seen by almost the entire political and business spectrum as a person without words or credibility. He is a lonely and adrift leader. It is no coincidence that everything that has been suffered, from the public mistreatment of Fernanda Vallejos (squatter and mequetrefe, among other epithets), to those of Sergio Berni (the one who brought the drunkard for the ‘take away), Andrés Larroque (he won no more than 4% of the vote), or Cristina Kirchner herself with the parody of the pen or the alleged chatter of dubious morality on her private telephone. They are the product of the same thing: the lack of respect for the person and contempt for the investiture they represent.

Alberto Fernández has always tried (since the beginning of his election campaign after being handpicked by CFK) to give credibility to his remarks under the aura of being a “professional” of the Law – far from it. A president who sees himself as a professor of legal science, when in reality, in his own words, he is an “acting part-time professor” (the difference between one and the other is abysmal) and who violates not only its own decrees (Fiesta de Olivos), but the very foundations of our democratic system trying to make a dent in another power independent of the national state, such as the judiciary. He is a president who does not fully understand his place in society. He never knew how to rise to the occasion.

What now looks like a re-election bid is more than a ‘hold on and make it’ parody. He intends, with his pantomime of re-election, that he continues to be served “hot coffee” as a well-known political analyst and former ambassador puts it ironically. We can only agree with this crude and hilarious, yet very accurate description of a public servant who claims to continue to be what we all know he couldn’t be, even with the tape, stick and pen in hand. Of all the presidents we have had since 1983, Alberto is the worst of them all. He was able to sit in Rivadavia’s chair thanks to a tweet from Cristina, who feels disappointed and cheated. Alberto does not have – nor did he have – his own political clout. This is his greatest weakness. Among the “non-functioning officials”, the president won the race by several bodies.

It amply turned out to be a mere bureaucrat, able to adapt, like Zelig, the character of Woody Allen, to the on-call interlocutor. He quickly earned the nickname procrastinator when making big decisions. He was and is, unfortunately, a president who favored the split instead of fighting it. A simple president, without independence, disappointing his own and foreigners with his actions, who has never been able to build real leadership, an aspect that was clearly exposed with the resignation of Minister Martín Guzmán on Twitter. Alberto was chosen by Cristina in the face of the crisis of her own image, among other things, because He was considered a “moderate”. This praise of his moderation turned into a praise of exaltation. The president has developed an exasperated tirade throughout his tenure, even bristling at times.

Re-election attempt or parody? With current inflation and increasingly serious citizen insecurity, the answer is overwhelming: “parody”. Alberto became the president of the ephemeral. His public remarks are permanently bastardized by a reality that is beyond him. We Argentines know very well what it is like to live with uncontrollable inflation. Unfortunately, we have also become accustomed to living in insecurity. The national and popular reality ends up becoming the cemetery of Christian history and certainly of any desire for re-election. Alberto knows he’s not giving him the “pin”, but he also knows that if he doesn’t staging the power vacuum he already feels would be terminal.

Today, his only real goal is to reach December 10, 2023 standing without having his bench removed.

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