"Alberto Fernández represents a hope for Latin America"

Early September Alberto Fernandez – Argentine presidential candidate for the Frente de Todos – visited the Spanish Cortes. He arrived a few days after the great victory won in the primary, open, simultaneous and mandatory elections of August 11, before the October 27 general election. Alberto Fernández, seconded by the former president Cristina Fernandez, got 47.78% of the votes while the current president Mauricio Macri, 31.79 percent.

Given the difference obtained, Fernández is already perceived as a "president-elect" even before October. During his European tour, he met Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa. During his visit to the General Court of the Kingdom of Spain in Madrid, he gave a lecture and maintained an open dialogue with the public. He was accompanied by Gerardo Pisarello, former deputy mayor of Barcelona (2015-2019), currently a United We Can deputy and born in Argentina, the son of a politician kidnapped and disappeared during the military dictatorship that plagued the country between 1976 and 1983.

How was the visit of Alberto Fernández in the Kingdom of Spain perceived?

I think this represents the hope of a gradual change of cycle at a time when good, very dangerous options are moving around the world. We have long been used to seeing characters like Donald Trump or Jair Bolsonaro appear every day or even in the case of Spain who broke the far right as the VOX party. While it seems that the winds that blow in the world are deeply conservative winds, suddenly a presidential candidate appears in a not insignificant country in Latin America like Argentina, which shows that what s & rsquo; Happened in another great country of Latin America Mexico does not seem to be an exception to the rule and, therefore, the progressive cycle – to call it in a simplified way – is a cycle that does not Is not closed. Fernandez's speech was intelligent, sensible, proposing economic alternatives to neoliberal conceptions, monetarist conceptions; to bring out an idea of ​​the international order in relation to proposals that consider the asymmetries of globalization as an inevitable fact. On the contrary, he proposed a more just international order with a more balanced relationship between the different peoples, between the north and the south. In addition. He came to the Congress of Spain and claimed the legacy left by the mothers and grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, the great Argentine consensus around the Nevermore (N.de R. Title of the report prepared on the crimes of the military dictatorship 1976-1983). one of the civilizational contributions of Argentina to the universal culture of human rights. The truth is that all this has attracted a lot of attention.

How are the four years of Mauricio Macri's government perceived in Spain?

It seems to me that there has been some surprise in the public opinion or in the opinion published in the mainstream media. Major Spanish media groups, who saw with a kind of "relief" at the end of the Kirchner cycle in Argentina see it as the end of the cycle of populism, have long given Macri a blank letter. This coincided with a time when personalities such as Macron also burst into Europe and a significant part of the media institution aspired to have global "macrones" around the world, and Macri could be one of them. Some time later, not only did the Macron model go into crisis, the Trump, the Bolsonaro, much more extreme versions began to emerge, but other alternatives such as that of macrismo have been shown, all of which have come to light. first totally wrong in their proposals. economic, then degenerated into deeply elitist and even authoritarian positions. This then created a huge confusion and it seems to me that the opinion published in Spain did not expect that there could exist a formula similar to that of Alberto Fernández and the Former President Cristina Fernández. I was listening to Alberto Fernández and thought that Pedro Sánchez himself would not dare to say much of the things that Alberto Fernández considers defending the freedom of Lula da Silva. Here we have not yet managed to convince Pedro Sánchez to do so and, in an absolutely incredible way, even gives him a nod to Bolsonaro as part of his foreign policy and the settlement of the Venezuelan conflict. Today, a figure like that of the former Spanish Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, appears as a great statesman, simply because it raises quite sensible things. And what Alberto Fernández did was to bring out ideas of international politics that were not radical ideas, even less, but firm ones. He spoke of Lula's freedom and denounced in a very solvent manner the use of the judiciary to persecute political opponents. I am also a lawyer, constitutionalist, and he made it clear that the evidence, the procedural rights, could not be constantly instrumentalized by the judiciary in attacking adversaries. And he cited the case of Lula, that of Rafael Correa in Ecuador; He said that this was happening in many countries of Latin America. We are facing a presidential candidate who defends a model of integration of Argentina in Latin America, which will not give up ideas such as that of UNASUR and who will not. also imposed in the relations with the European Union and relations with the United States consolidate the existing asymmetries and inequalities, but try to respect them and respect the dignity of the people. Listen to them suddenly in a context where these basic principles were abandoned, the truth was that it was a breath of fresh air.

During his visit, Alberto Fernández raised the issue of debt with the International Monetary Fund and also went to Portugal. How do you interpret it?

I think the Portuguese model is mainly a metaphor. The reality is much more complex, but it is a metaphor that in the context of a crisis and a very serious debt crisis, there were alternatives, such as what happened in southern Europe with Greece. Greece was the direct alternative to a policy of adjustment that had led international organizations to kneel the Syriza government led by Alexis Tsipras. Greece has seen imposing an adjustment plan that has forced it to privatize hospitals, airports and sell islands. I think the attempt of the European Union was to tame the threat of Podemos in Spain. In Portugal, the adaptation was launched by the Socialist Party and was defeated. Then the Conservative government applied it and it was also defeated. This has allowed a new Socialist Party government, but this one has the support of the Left because it is a parliamentary system and some things could be done that are no longer just adjustments. The minimum wage could be increased and transport rates improved. Then, Portugal became a metaphor that it was possible to practice other policies, more progressive for example, that focused more on social inclusion. But it is necessary to tell the truth, it was possible after a brutal adjustment in Portugal, which put two governments in front. And despite these advances, the south of Southern Europe remains dramatic: the member countries of the European Union – unlike those of Latin America – have lost control of monetary policy. Portugal seems to me to be a metaphor for the fact that there are alternatives and there is now a slight recovery thanks to the progressive policies applied with this pluralistic leftist government.

* Note posted on nodal.am