The silent rebellion that the Government and the opposition do not see

Walter Schmidt

05/23/2021 22:05

• Clarín.com

• Opinion

Updated 05/23/2021 10:05 PM

On the surface on which the Government and the opposition, businessmen, trade unionists, legislators walk daily, the logic responds to a crack that transfers everything to confrontation, including sensitive issues such as the fight against the pandemic and the vaccination campaign.

In the eagerness to capitalize politically on health aid and to win votes to collect them in the November elections,

politics loses its horizon and engages in ideological discussions that alienate it from society.

But in an underground plane -or not so much-, that of social networks, there are

hundreds of thousands of invisible militants who build emergencies -

misnamed youtubers- that, at a minimum, question the political class and traditional parties and, at a maximum They bet on chaos and the fall of the political system as such.

The problem with this shot is that for both, the arguments are unnecessary. 42 percent poverty; an exponential growth of the slums from 1983 to today; an informality or black employment of 40%; a universe of social plans instead of jobs that encompasses 25% of the population and that is not a product of the pandemic but rather the health situation has only worsened it; a perspective of a country with growth only given by the rise in the prices of commodities –soya, grains, meat- but not by an industrialization process that has not been seen in the last 50 years; and constant cases of corruption reflect the failure of traditional political parties.

The recent

protests in Chile and Colombia

indicate that something is happening far from the priorities of politics.

In Chile, an increase in transportation sparked a wave of motorized protests by young students that ended in the reform of the Trans-Andean Constitution at the hands of independent leaders.

In Colombia, the trigger was a tax increase that led to a rebellion that has not ceased and that questions the political regime.

In Colombia, young people are the architects of the protest that began with a rejection of the tax increase and led to a criticism of the political regime.

Photo: EFE / Ricardo Maldonado Rozo

In Argentina, as in other countries in the region, only 2 out of 10 people trust the Executive Power and Congress, two key powers for democracy.

In a context of inequality.

“The young people who come to us are those who do not want to leave the country, who know other models and want to apply them here.

They consider politicians corrupt, liars and thieves and they still do not have a political representation, "

explains Tipito Angry, a nickname behind which lives a political leader of young people in the networks, with 200 thousand followers and who talks daily with boys from all over the world. the country.

Opponent of the government of Alberto Fernández and very critical of Juntos por el Cambio.

Falling into the stigmatization of considering the protests that changed the political course in Chile and Colombia as

left or right is an erroneous simplification,

labeling the debate that today crosses millions of young people based on parameters of past decades.

Augusto Salvatto, a 26-year-old political scientist, very active in the networks, considers that

“the form of military causes is changing a lot and

social

networks

have particular components with a primacy of the image, short messages and with proposals that exceed the country. That is changing the way of doing politics ”

, he says. His 21-year-old brother Mateo, a protagonist in the networks and now also in the traditional media, maintains that

“the situation we are experiencing is sad”

because “

Argentine politics is partisan and absurdly personalistic, defending people or ideologies but never to ideas ”.

Both brothers are recognized for permanently highlighting the potential of Argentina that is being wasted by politics.

Solutions to current problems are sought in the last century when they should be sought in the future, they often repeat.

“In Argentina, what is very complex is the future outlook, unless we begin to have long-term policies and profound changes.

The big challenge for governments is back on track this generation to the center stage "

,

says Federico Dominguez, author of the book" The Revolt of the pandemials ".

The process is germinating.

There are many young people looking for leaders who can get them out of the labyrinth of Peronists, Kirchnerists, Macristas, Radicals, Socialists.

"On the right, referents emerge who say what the guilty center-right leaders do not want to say

, and also become possible candidate alternatives"

, sums up Alvaro Zicarelli political analyst and head of the "Right Center Unit", which has some 400 thousand adherents in the whole country and 11 groups with a presence in 7 provinces.

The question is, why if in Argentina, where the economic situation is much weaker than in Chile and Colombia, those images of massive protests in the streets are not seen.

"It happens that here the most humble sectors are contained by the Government and social groups. And in the case of those who criticize the government in the networks there is no one to contain them with a political project",

affirms a Peronist leader.

In Chile, the wave of protests promoted by students as a result of the increase in transport culminated in the commitment to reform the Constitution.

Photo: Martin BERNETTI / AFP

"If the people rise up, the powerful will remember that we really have power. And if we have power, they are our employees. But it depends on how much egg a people has ...

this people is cowardly

. And if we lock ourselves up and merge, it's because we deserve it "

, Emmanuel Danann provokes on his YouTube channel where he has 1.2 million subscribers.

In the Government, this phenomenon is not a reason for analysis or concern.

Although they do admit - a member of the cabinet - that

the young people who served in the 2019 campaign for Alberto Fernández to become President,

"are withdrawing from the political discussion

. It is certain that they will continue to vote for us, but they withdrew from the discussion."

.

It is that

there are no bridges between the political leadership and these young

, either by shortsightedness or by a generational mismatch.

"The politicians have not been able to represent themselves in the networks. Kirchnerism does not pull, the only thing that exists is the teaching group with a leftist logic. And neither does macrismo or larretismo, because they do old politics

,

"

assesses Tipito Angry.

Perhaps the images of Chile or Colombia will never be repeated in Argentina.

But that does not mean that there is no ongoing process, clearly alternative, and sometimes even disruptive, that

could at some point shake the political scene.