Mauricio Macri: “The populism that is rampant in my country weakens the institutional system, restricts freedom of expression and attacks judicial independence”

The ex-president Mauricio Macri described the government of Alberto Fernández as populism that “is rampant in my country.“Where” the institutional system is weakened, freedom of speech is restricted and judicial independence is under attack, “and said the policy of purchasing coronavirus vaccines has been carried out with a”absolute nonsense “.

“There is no health crisis that justifies depriving us of our freedoms, it is unacceptableSaid the former head of state, in a clear critical passage of preventive restrictions to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

With a strong speech, the founder of PRO recalled that populism is “one of the challenges” facing the region, during the forum event “Defense of Democracy in the AmericasThis takes place in the Granada Room at the Biltmore Hotel in Miami, USA. In this context, he declared that he had been the victim of political and judicial persecution by Kirchnerism: “Since their return to power, they have devoted themselves to persecuting journalists, judges, me and my family, without any limits.”.

The referent of Together for Change recalled that its former Minister of Justice, Germán Garavano, and the former ambassador Paula Bertol | They presented a report a few weeks ago to the Organization of American States (AEO), where “institutional deterioration” was denounced and in which they warned against “the subjugation of the judiciary” in the country.

“Democracy in Argentina is threatened by behavior that seeks to weaken the judiciary, violating the Constitution and human rights. He has only one goal: to generate impunity for those in charge of his government who are the subject of investigations for serious acts of corruption and some who have already been convicted. And they disguise everything under the figure of lawthat they are the victims of journalists, of the opposition and of judges who seek to persecute them, ”declared Mauricio Macri.

“It is clear that democracies no longer die from a coup. We no longer see sudden events, like tanks in the streets. The process we see is that the leaders win an election and inside the system start to corrode it, to weaken the institutional system, restrict freedom of expression, attack the independence of the judiciary, proclaim themselves the defenders of the people to justify all kinds of abuses ”, declared the leader of the opposition during the act of the Inter-American Institute for Democracy (IID).

In his message, the former president redoubled the meaning of one of the speeches he gave over the past year, from Guatemala, when he said populism was worse than the coronavirus pandemic . “Populism at the origin of a health crisis is a double combination, it is more dangerous. This is serious, because the lies and the ineptitude are more evident», He launched.

“In the case of our country, they led us to the longest quarantine in the world, weakening the whole social fabric, altering the life of Argentines, generating psychological and health problems that we will encounter in the years to come “, he exposed.

In addition, Mauricio Macri underlined as “an absolute nonsense” that the executive power “did not obtain enough vaccines” to immunize the population. “Just over 2% of the population received both doses to protect themselves», He expressed.

On the other hand, he drew attention to the critical moment that the second wave of infections is going through in Argentina, where “an even greater intention is perceived to advance the rights that correspond to us. “What is more complex is that populism inoculates the virus of resignation. They want us to believe that this is so, that people must resign themselves to poverty, no sewerage, no clean water and now they can’t even get vaccinated. This is what we really have to fight against», He launched.

Regarding the epilogue of his speech, Mauricio Macri proposed as solutions “Put multilateralism into effect», With agreements between regions which« limit the abuse of power ». In this context, he proposed that Argentina return to the process of joining the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and recommended reproducing the models of “countries which have progressed, which are those which have embraced freedom, openness to economic and technological progress ”. .

“Those who have gone beyond their institutions and freedoms, the only thing they have achieved is to harvest poverty. They have destroyed trust, and without trust there is no investment, no jobs or opportunities for improvement for anyone, ”he said.

“What we must all do is commit ourselves, every day, each from his place, to defending that whenever we have better institutions, which respect diversity and pluralism. This is the only way, we have no other, ”he concluded.

Mauricio Macri shared the panel with the OAS Secretary General, Luis Almagro, and the former presidents Andres Pastrana (Colombia), Luis Guillermo Solis (Costa Rica) and Osvaldo Hurtado (Ecuador). The closing of the event will be in charge of the President of Ecuador, Lenin Moreno.

The meeting, which includes a debate agenda with several panels with democracy as its focus, has the presidents as participants Sebastian piñera (Chile) e Ivan Duque (Colombia).

PHOTOS: Enrique Tubio

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