Perhaps the huge stage planted in the Plaza de Mayo covering almost the entire building of the Casa Rosada is the sign that the celebrations for the twentieth anniversary of the beginning of the mandate of Néstor Kirchner was the absolute property of hard Kirchnerism.
Cristinismo, in fact, already at this point, with the vice president as a central figure and her family paying tribute to the former president, plus a crowded square that resisted as it could the inclemency of a day full of rain.
"I love storms, but of course, I'm here with a roof and you don't, long live," was the comment with which Cristina prepared to close her speech of almost an hour, which was scheduled to begin at 16 p.m. but began 30 minutes before, Anthem through, and ended around four thirty in the afternoon, When the sky seemed to fall and lightning and thunder filled the scene.
The K militancy took the day as an occasion to celebrate Néstor and make a last effort to convince Cristina to compete for a candidacy. Never, throughout the day, was the 213th anniversary of the creation of the first governing board remembered. Yes, there were allusive postcards, linked especially to the gastronomic offer of the square and the rainy day, of similar characteristics, it is said, to that May 25, 1810.
A giant pot of locro, in the Plaza de Mayo. Photo: Fernando de la Orden.
Sale of umbrellas and pilotines were a postcard throughout the day, but especially those who gathered in front of the Cabildo took advantage of the trip to have lunch. The menu was varied as never before: from the classic choripanes and hamburgers, which quoted between $ 500 and $ 1,000 depending on which stall it was sold, to the bondiola sandwiches, the roast ribs and the star of the day, the locro casserole. Empanadas and pastries, the other variants.
The attendance at the event was not as massive as other times, but the weather played a determining role. The center of the square was full and there were a good number of people on the diagonals and on Avenida de Mayo, but there was not as much crowded public as in other Kirchner celebrations.
The municipalities took over the parade, as it usually happens, with specially mobilized militancy, distributed in collectives from the Bajo area to 9 de Julio. La Matanza, Ezeiza, San Martín, Lomas de Zamora, Avellaneda, Merlo, Moreno, Quilmes were a reflection of the most populous districts of the Conurbano that were firm in the Plaza, propped up by the mayors, who were in the first row of the stage that was planted.
La Cámpora took over the accesses to the Plaza de Mayo. Photo: EFE.
La Cámpora also played a central role, mobilizing many people, but especially from the organizational point of view, and taking the post from the entrance through Diagonal Norte to the main accesses to the Plaza. And the unions and social movements also played their game, with a lot of presence and aligned in the face of the decisions taken in electoral matters.
There were allegorical signs, as is often the case, to the K management, and a request that was shared: "It's her or nobody." There were some who appealed to humor: "Tell it as you want" or, "It's me, Cristina, pelotudo," alluding to the telephone conversation that was broadcast between the former president and who was her secretary at the time, the current senator Oscar Parrilli.
In the chants, Cristina also prevailed, over the Kirchnerism that Néstor initiated two decades ago. "Cristina, president," was again the rallying cry to ask for a candidacy that the former head of state herself has already ruled out on several occasions. In that sense, although it was expected, many people were left with little taste because Cristina made almost no direct mentions of the approaching electoral situation.
Of the former president, especially the memory of a giant flag with him raising his thumb, which was hung in the building adjacent to the AFIP. Plus Cristina's own memory and some specific songs that were sung, but the owner of ceremonies was the Vice.
As has happened in other acts in the last two years, the figure of Alberto Fernández was ignored. "Alberto is not worth a," a group of militants who were walking along Avenida de Mayo were heard commenting. That level of contempt was handled from militant Kirchnerism towards the figure of the president that exactly four years ago Cristina chose in her attempt, successful in the end, to return to power.
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