On May 25, 2003 Néstor Kirchner assumed as President and gave an inaugural speech of his administration. What follows are a dozen of the slogans announced and what happened to them, 20 years later. From that day until today, there were 16 years of governments of Kirchnerism (four of Néstor, eight of Cristina and four of Alberto Fernández with Cristina vice president) and four of Macri.
Leaders at odds
2003. "Our past is full of failures, pain, confrontations, energies wasted in sterile struggles, to the point of seriously confronting the leaders, to the point of pitting Argentines against each other."
2023. Cristina does not speak with Alberto Fernández and Kirchnerism warns that it does not want to see the President in the act of this 25 in the Plaza de Mayo. Fernandez replies that, in any case, he did not plan to attend.
The hope of the boys
2003. "It is about giving birth to an Argentina with social progress, where children can aspire to live better than their parents on the basis of their effort and work."
2023.Six out of 10 children under the age of 17 are poor and do not have full access to food, education and health. Young people who can finish university do not get a job (unemployment among young people up to 24 years of age triples overall unemployment) and the number of those who go to try their luck abroad increases.
Work-based progress
2003. "It is the State that must act as the great repairer of social inequalities by promoting progress based on effort and work."
2023. Social plans already reach 52% of the population, a record figure.
Institutional quality and respect for standards
2003. "None of these reforms will be productive and lasting if we do not create the conditions to generate an increase in institutional quality. Institutional quality implies full adherence to standards."
2023. There is a war of Kirchnerism to justice – which it calls "judicial party" – and a process of impeachment to the Court. In the Senate, Cristina splits the block of Kirchnerism, an institutional trap to gain another representative in the Magistracy.
Battle against impunity
2003. "There will be no reliable change if we allow areas of impunity to persist. A guarantee that the fight against corruption and impunity will be relentless, will strengthen institutions on the basis of eliminating all suspicion about them."
2023. Two oral tribunals that have in common the same judge dismissed Cristina in the cases of Hotesur and the Pact with Iran without trial. She was acquitted before verifying evidence and hearing witnesses that the same judges had subpoenaed for public hearings that never took place.
Rulers without privileges
2003. "We flatly reject the identification between governability and impunity. Governability is not and cannot be synonymous with obscure agreements or spurious pacts behind society's back."
2023. They ask for the investigation of former Health Minister Ginés González García for the VIP vaccination that benefited friends of the government and officials such as Carlos Zannini during the pandemic.
The "strong fight" against corruption
2003. "Institutional quality, strengthening of institutions in accordance with the Constitution and the law, and a strong fight against impunity and corruption must preside not only over the acts of the Government but over the entire institutional life of the Republic."
2023. Cristina is sentenced to six years in prison for corruption in the public works of Santa Cruz. It is for the direction of the works to Lázaro Báez, a friend of Néstor Kirchner who founded his company Austral Construcciones on May 7, 2003, just 18 days before Néstor assumed the Presidency and delivered this speech.
Political clientelism
2003. "In our country the appearance of the figure of the political client is coeval with that of the unemployed. While there was work in the Argentine Republic, no one was held hostage by a party leader."
2023. Many of those attending the events say they must go because the neighborhood pointer demands them not to remove them from the lists of social plans and continue charging.
Insecurity
2003. "A society with high rates of inequality, impoverishment, lack of faith and horizons for youth, with impunity, will always be the scene of high levels of insecurity and violence."
2023. Since the return of democracy, crimes have grown ten times more than the population and those killed by drug trafficking in Rosario exceed records. In 2003 there were 109 homicides in Rosario. Last year, 288.
Inflation and fiscal deficit
2003. "The country cannot continue to cover the deficit through permanent indebtedness nor can it resort to the issuance of currency without control, running inflationary risks that end up affecting the lower income sectors."
2023. April's fiscal deficit grows by 100% compared to the previous year. The Central Bank has no reserves. Inflation reaches 8.4% monthly – the highest in 20 years – and 108.8% year-on-year, the highest in 30 years.
Modernisation works
2003. "More intensive housing construction, road and rail infrastructure works... will shape a productive country."
2023. The President and Minister Sergio Massa inaugurate a train to Mendoza that will take 28 hours but, two months after "inaugurated", not only has it not yet arrived in Mendoza but on Sunday it derailed in a Cordovan town.
Counter-terrorism
2003. "The fight against international terrorism, which has left such deep and horrible traces in the memory of the Argentine people, will find us willing and attentive to succeed in banishing them from among the evils that humanity suffers."
2023. Cristina is accused of making a pact with Iran to cover up those accused of blowing up the AMIA. Although she was acquitted without trial by an oral court, the ruling still awaits its final resolution in the Court of Cassation. Four days after making the complaint against Cristina's government, prosecutor Alberto Nisman – whom Néstor Kirchner had put in charge of the UFI AMIA – was found in his apartment with a shot in the head. Justice investigates the fact as a murder that is still unpunished.