Argentina: attack on Cristina Kirchner and political repercussions
Thursday 1 of September, when Vice President Cristina Férnandez de Kirchner arrived at her home, a man identified as Fernando Sabag Montiel, He pointed a gun at his head and pulled the trigger.. The gun did not fire and Montiel was arrested. The attack shocked the country and received almost universal rejection. The Frente de Todos government called a mobilization to Plaza de Mayo the next day, seeking to use the fact to generate political support that it had been losing due to the deep adjustment that has been applied against the working people. We share an analysis note from Guillermo Pacagnini, the MST statement and the FIT Unidad declaration.
March to the Plaza. The political use of the attack
By Guillermo Pacagnini
The attack against Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner caused shock and strong rejection among workers and popular sectors. That logical feeling and concern was used by the government to call for a mobilization to Plaza de Mayo yesterday Friday., calling for national unity and social peace, at the same time that a strong adjustment is being implemented on those below.
From our party, We immediately repudiate the attack through statements from our leaders and through a statement from the national leadership, demanding a thorough investigation to clarify this serious fact. We also reject the hypocrisy of Together for Change and the media campaigns of the entire right that enable these and other reactionary actions.
We also express ourselves through a statement from the FIT Unidad in similar terms.
Why don't we attend?
From the MST, Together with a large part of the left, we call not to attend the march called by the president, the Frente de Todos and endorsed by the official union bureaucracy. Because the move was based on popular anger but with the undisguisable strategy of channeling that rejection to strengthen the government in the midst of the application of a harsh adjustment plan ordered by the IMF.
On the other hand, the failed attack was used, to support the thesis of destabilization, Democracy in danger and other misleading claims, usually used by governments in moments of acute crisis and when they need to rebuild their social base, appealing to the ghost of the right. When is the government itself today?, by Massa – Rubinstein and with the explicit endorsement of CFK and its sector, who took the right-wing agenda into his hands to openly apply the IMF recipe.
The majority of the left and combative unionism agreed in the repudiation of the attack, but without attending the event of the Frente de Todos. The exception, once again displaying extreme opportunism was the Nuevo MAS with Manuela Castañeira, that marched and ended up being a caboose, but “with their own flags.”
The government declared a national holiday to facilitate the call in different parts of the country. And although the rejection of the attack was general and massive, The march was clearly hegemonized by Peronism, with an undeniable partisan and electoral political tone, centrally promoting the slogan “Cristina president.”
Government officials such as Chief of Staff Manzur coexisted in the box., mayors, governors (among them Gildo Insfrán), social leaders, human rights and related unionists, with Super Minister Massa at the helm. A meeting of businessmen was held inside La Rosada, government, Church and union leaders, where the declaration was outlined that was later read in the square calling for national unity (1). A meeting with the aroma of a social pact in form and content, where concord was called, to unity among those who engineered the agreement with the usurers, those who take it with a shovel, those who apply the adjustment and... those of us who pay the price for the crisis.
Once again in times of crisis they call for sustaining governance based on adjustment plans. Promoting unity between those of us who suffer from it and those who apply it, calling on the workers and the people to harmony with the capitalist parties and with the business entities responsible for inflation, job insecurity and the surrender of the country.
Together with the president of the UIA, the slave businessman Daniel Funes from Rioja, there was the leadership of the union centers that did not even mention the high rates, budget cuts to health and education and social plans and the government's adjustment measures. color note: the cegetist bureaucracy, who had been threatening a strike for Monday, put a violin in the stock market, It was part of the act and not a word about fighting for salary.
What is needed, At the same time as continuing to demand a thorough investigation of the attack against CFK, it is mobilizing; but not to call for unity with the employers and the adjusters, but to stop the anti-worker plan of the government and the Monetary Fund.
Document read in the Plaza de Mayo
Faced with the attempted assassination of the country's main political leader, No one who defends the Republic can remain silent or put their ideological differences before the unanimous repudiation that this action brings.
There is no way to relativize or minimize an assassination attempt. The solidarity and repudiation of leaders from all over Latin America, from the US, of Europe and Pope Francis show that the world fully understands the seriousness of what happened. The organized labor movement expressed itself in the same sense., business entities, religious communities, sports associations and other intermediate organizations in the country. Also a large part of the national political leadership, to whom we thank for understanding that democratic coexistence must prevail over any political disagreement.
The “limit” that we have heard a lot about in recent hours was not crossed yesterday. If we do not want intolerance and political violence to destroy the democratic consensus that we have built since 1983 To the date, We must contextualize what happened last night against Vice President Cristina Kirchner: For several years a tiny sector of the political leadership and its party media has been repeating hate speech, denial of the other, stigmatization, criminalization of any popular leader or leader related to Peronism, and even from any sympathizer. We have all seen mobilizations where mortuary bags were paraded through the most important squares of the Federal Capital., coffins or guillotines.
The legitimization of extreme speeches is neither innocent nor gratuitous, of calls for aggression, of proposals that deny democratic legitimacy of the political adversary. No one is individually responsible for the actions of others., But those who gave up air time to hate speech should reflect on how they have collaborated to get us to this situation.
Democratic life is incompatible with the actions of violent minorities who seek to lead the rest of society by the nose., or force a certain leadership to take increasingly sectarian positions in order to please this supposed electoral clientele.
Coexistence within the framework of a democratic order is also the threshold of the necessary conditions for the development of our sons and daughters.. The damage that violent actions and words produce in the minds of boys and girls is a condemnation for the future of Argentina.
The Argentine people are moved, shocked by what happened, including millions who do not sympathize with Cristina or Peronism. In honor of all our compatriots, we make this call for national unity but not at any price.: the hate outside.
Announcement. Given the attack on CFK and today's mobilization
From our party we repudiate the attack that the vice president of the country suffered last night, as we made it known through our public representatives as soon as the event happened. And we demand that there be a thorough investigation and clarification of what happened. It is evident that the climate and political tension that exists in our country, and the hate speeches that are encouraged by sectors of political and economic power enable this type of results.. Hence, we also repudiate the hypocrisy of the different representatives of Together for Change who now look the other way as if they had not contributed to this situation that exists today..
While we repudiate the attack, We do not share the political use made of it by President Alberto Fernández, the Frente de Todos and the union bureaucracy related to the government. Now they are calling for a march to Plaza de Mayo, under the call for unity and asking for social peace. Seeking in this way to use the attack to strengthen the government project, and thus help the adjustment pass, that they promote hand in hand with the IMF. Adjustment that the union bureaucracy has been allowing to be applied.
From the left we confront this fact with coherence: we condemn the attack, we ask for your clarification, we reject the hypocrisy of the right-wing opposition, and we do not participate in a march that behind the issue of the attack, simultaneously seeks national unity with the adjusters and applicators of the agreement with the Fund, just as the government is doing today through Massa and with the support of the entire Frente de Todos.
Executive Committee of the MST at the FIT Unidad
Declaration. The FIT-U repudiates the attack on the vice president
The Unity Left Front repudiates the attack suffered by Cristina Kirchner on Thursday night and demands its immediate clarification.
It is no coincidence that, according to public information, The person who wanted to commit the crime was part of the campaign to stigmatize and criminalize the popular struggles and the piquetero movement as part of a media campaign that included the extreme right of Milei - who not coincidentally made a notable silence in the face of this attack.- Together for Change and the ruling party itself. This campaign promotes repression against the struggles of working people and the redoubling of adjustment measures.
Our repudiation of this reactionary attack does not imply any political solidarity with a government that is carrying out a profound adjustment against the working people under the mandate of the International Monetary Fund.. We reject the calls for “unity” and “concord” with the business chambers that promote the adjustment and reduction of salaries, and with the political parties of adjustment. That is why we have decided not to march on the day of the date.
From the FIT-U we will continue defending democratic freedoms against any reactionary or fascist attack, against the repressive apparatus of the State and supporting each and every one of the fights against adjustment, for the salary, housing and in defense of public health and education.
Left Front and Workers Unity
