Eduardo Paladini
07/13/2020 - 11:38
- Clarín.com
- Politics
When a review of opposition behavior in the future is done in 2020, a chapter could be titled "Communiqués Together for Change. The internal one . " The rejection of the initial invitation to have an online contact with President Alberto Fernández had its own history of debate and conflicting positions, although it showed progress: the discussion was healed before the document was released and did not generate a post-fight. A priori, in addition, it gave a first result: there will finally be an encounter, but with conditions that space demanded.
As Clarín was able to reconstruct , the invitation to chat by zoom with Fernández had a relatively quick acceptance by the head of the block of PRO Deputies, Cristian Ritondo , and an immediate rejection of the Civic Coalition, led by Maximiliano Ferraro . The origin of the invitation explains part of the positions: it all started through an informal chat from Sergio Massa, the head of the lower house, who is fluent in his relationship with Ritondo. The former Buenos Aires Minister of Security was one of those who confirmed contact with the President on Sunday afternoon.
The rejection of the Civic Coalition (CC) started from a living memory : in 2009, after the legislative defeat, Cristina Kirchner called the opposition to discuss a political reform, which ended up imposing some real changes, such as the PASO, but which continued to allow electoral contraptions such as collectors. Elisa Carrió was one of the few who did not attend the invitation at the time: she says she saw the poisoned card coming.
Until Sunday afternoon, the CC held several points to not join this time:
1) "There was still no formal invitation from the Presidency of the Nation. Only comment / invitation from the president of the Chamber of Deputies."
2) "No one had said anything to the senators, nor had any invitation come to them."
3) "For this type of meeting it is always good to be able to know the agenda, the issues to be dealt with. It is logical and serious that it should be so. It is not about going for a coffee."
4) "You always have to be willing to dialogue. This is what we did in the two previous meetings and in Congress. But dialogue must first take place in the spaces where it belongs and should be: in Parliament or among those who have management responsibility. "
5) "Without detracting from and ignoring the rest of the parliamentary representation, we believe that there should be and be a special consideration with JxC. Because of the number of deputies and senators that it has and because the JxC also has an agenda and its own concerns and issues. It represents 41% of the votes. "
Also in the CC they transmitted certain anger for what they consider a double speech: "Sometimes it is a bit contradictory what the President says or his intention and what high-level government officials wield." They were referring to the disqualifications that the July 9 protest and the former president Mauricio Macri had received from Santiago Cafiero, chief of staff; and Juan Pablo Biondi, Fernández's spokesperson.
The informal channel that Massa had chosen to summon the opposition deputies had generated an almost unanimous claim in the JxC referents, not only from the Coalition. There was also consensus that it be an exclusive meeting and with representatives of the Senate , as it would end up happening.
This was discussed in another zoom on Sunday afternoon. And from there came the statement of the night. As if to show total consensus, he ended up writing a radical, Senator Martín Lousteau. It is one of those that balances in pursuit of a more moderate construction, in view of which it foresees a greater Kirchnerization of Alberto Fernández.