Peronism embraces Cristina Kirchner with a massive demonstration in Buenos Aires

The first noise bomb exploded around noon and it was as if all of Buenos Aires woke up.

The Argentine capital woke up this Friday between shock and drowsiness after a man tried to assassinate Cristina Fernández de Kirchner at the door of her house.

Fernando Sabag Montiel, 35, took aim and fired twice, but no bullets came out.

It was the end of 10 nights of tension in the Argentine capital due to the vigil in front of the building where the vice president lives.

This Friday, the demonstration moved to the center of the city.

Thousands of people filled the three avenues that connect the Plaza del Palacio de Gobierno with the rest of Buenos Aires.

Peronism is experiencing bitter days in power, but a unanimous cry in support of the former president has achieved unity: "You don't fuck with Cristina!"

“Our happiness was always thanks to Cristina.

If we lose it, we lose everything,” says Malena Díaz, 34, who went to the plaza with her two young daughters.

Fireworks resound down the street on Julio Roca Avenue and people arrive little by little between the columns of the unions.

Díaz covers the ears of her youngest girl, eight years old, and says: “My girls did not know our happiest days, but they have to know the strength of Peronism.

Democracy is in danger, and now is when we have to be the most”.

Kirchnerism has lived days of celebration in the streets in recent weeks.

The accusation of corruption against the former president and the threat of a federal prosecutor who asks to disqualify her for life lit the fuse of the militancy, which until this Saturday had been camping in front of Cristina Kirchner's house for 10 days.

It was all songs, shouts of “companero!”

and ridicule against the residents of Recoleta, one of the finest neighborhoods in the city, who barricaded themselves in the face of the overflow of protesters.

The attack against the vice president has moved Argentines, but has not affected the tone of the demonstrations.

This Saturday, the scenes were similar.

Hundreds of families with children, thousands of groups of young people and older adults who dared to go out alone gathered in the Plaza de Mayo as a defense of Peronism, which between runaway inflation and economic adjustments to meet the goals of the Monetary Fund International, lives low hours in the Government.

As in the streets of Recoleta, some voices were encouraged to ask “Cristina presidenta!, Cristina presidenta!”, but the majority cry swore allegiance to the movement with the Peronist march: “Perón, Perón, how great you are!

My general, how much are you worth!

Perón, Perón, great driver!

You are the first worker!”

“Our duty is memory,” says Horacio Ramírez, 46, who was walking down Avenida de Mayo in the afternoon waving the flags of Argentina and Bolivia.

He arrived alone by bus from Villa Lugano, a neighborhood in the southwest of Buenos Aires.

Born in Cochabamba, he says that he emigrated from Bolivia to Argentina “very young”, and that he considers himself “Argentine at heart, because of Perón, Cristina and the Great Homeland of South America”.

"Peronism gave us things that we could not have had otherwise," says the man, who works in construction.

On Thursday, after confirming the capture of the attacker, President Alberto Fernández had decreed a national holiday for Argentines to take to the streets to "express themselves in defense of life, of democracy, and in solidarity with our vice president."

The leading role was played by the people summoned in the street.

There was no official act, and Fernández, who had announced that he would join the demonstration, did not appear on stage.

The concentration was interrupted for a moment around six in the afternoon with the reading of a manifesto by the actress Alejandra Darín.

"Faced with the attempted assassination of the main political leader of the country, no one who defends the Republic can remain silent or put their ideological differences before the unanimous rejection that this action brings," said Darín,

The opposition had accused President Fernández of “playing with fire” by canceling public activities so people can gather in the streets, but the demonstration has been peaceful.

This Friday was a late winter afternoon without a cloud in the sky.

In the sun, the flags of the pantheon of Peronist Argentina waved: the faces of the general and his wife, Eva Perón, that of Pope Francis, that of the singer Carlos Alberto El Indio Solari, the liberator José de San Martín and Néstor Kirchner.

Memorabilia celebrating Cristina Kirchner was seen everywhere on T-shirts, hats, flags, pins, and stickers.

But most of the demonstrators chose other symbols: the light blue and white of the Argentine flag.

Added to the chaos that the country is experiencing this year is the most atypical ending: the presidential campaign for the October 2023 elections will soon begin, and even closer is the World Cup in November, in the middle of the southern summer.

It will be the last chance for another national hero, Lionel Messi.

Agustín, 24, left the square at around four in the afternoon.

Like hundreds of boys, he chose to go to the march wearing the shirt of the Argentine soccer team.

– What would you prefer, that Messi lift the trophy or that Cristina Kirchner be president?

– Christina.

Always give it to Cristina.

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