The Pandemic Saga: From the Kingdom of Epidemiologists to the Fight of Lawyers

Ignacio Miri

04/20/2021 10:46 PM

• Clarín.com

• Politics

Updated 04/20/2021 10:46 PM

After advancing for a year under the microscope of epidemiologists, the pandemic

is on the way to being trapped

in Argentina in the terms of discussion that

lawyers are

passionate about

: the debate over the jurisdictions, competences, jurisdictions, compliances and rebellions buried in recent days the

medical terminology

that gained brilliance throughout 2020.

This second wave of the coronavirus

will be administered by the courts

because the national government decided to

break the conversation with the City of Buenos Aires

to address as urgently as possible Governor Axel Kicillof's request to reduce

the circulation of people

.

In the Buenos Aires suburbs, after the decades that the State has been withdrawing from the areas most affected by poverty, the only way to do that efficiently is to

close the schools

.

At the same time, the only known way that this unpleasant decision reduces its political cost is that the closure also includes the schools of the City of Buenos Aires.

That presidential decision not discussed with the opposition generated a direct consequence in the landscape of Together for Change: Horacio Rodríguez Larreta was left

without tools to defend his centrist position

against those who, in his own space, punished him for trying to maintain channels of dialogue with the Casa Rosada.

The head of government decided to

resist the paragraphs of the

presidential

decree

that forced him to close the schools and at that time the dispute was irretrievably

in the hands of the judges

.

What was seen this week is that Alberto Fernández and Rodríguez Larreta are

also unable to agree on which judges

should tie the tie.

As the hecatomb of Justice in Argentina made the determination of the board on which the game is played more important than the performance and arguments of the players, each side opted for a different scenario.

The City

presented its complaint against the DNU in the Supreme Court

and then complied with

a ruling imposed by a Buenos Aires Chamber

, while the Nation chose to consider the Buenos Aires State as a subprovincial entity and litigate in the federal courts in order to delay the arrival of the fight to the Court, where he expects

an unfavorable reception

.

The Court gave the Nation five days to present its arguments, but now that term

could be stretched a little more

, since the decision of Judge Esteban Furnari to turn the complaint of the Treasury Attorney, Carlos Zannini, to the highest court introduces a novelty in the file, which must be

notified to the parties and also to the Attorney General

of the Nation.

How will that fight continue?

In principle, Rodríguez Larreta decided to

keep the Buenos Aires schools open 

until the Supreme Court pronounces.

To put it another way, he chose to obey the Buenos Aires ruling and not the federal judge's order.

That opens a new path through the courts for the head of government, who must travel

accompanied by the evolution of the numbers of the pandemic

: if the infections do not escalate, he will be able to say that the data he showed to justify his decision to open schools were successful.

If the growth of cases

accelerates its rate

, it will have no way to stop the accusations that will come from the Government and from other sectors.

There, perhaps, the moment will come when lawyers, as epidemiologists have already done,

will give way to the next profession.

who has to understand in the management of the pandemic.

Predicting which guild will get the next shift is even more difficult than knowing a day in advance whether to send the kids to school or not.