When there is nothing to say, it is often better to keep quiet. However, Argentine politicians from the main political forces, the Frente de Todos and Juntos por el Cambio, referred to sensitive issues with great ease: deaths from covid-19, military dictatorship, inflation, Qatar 2022 World Cup, holocaust and mental illness (which in the twenty-first century are still used as an insult). It all started on Thursday, November 10, when presidential spokesperson Gabriela Cerruti filmed herself during a recorrida she made through the Casa Rosada with the Minister of Equality of Spain, Irene Montero, and without a self-criticism for what she said she uploaded it to social networks. In that video you can hear that the official showed her Spanish counterpart the memorial in tribute to the victims of COVID-19 and relates it to “the Argentine right”, as if people with leftist ideology or coronavirus officials had not died in Argentina.
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“At the source… There what we have now, after Covid, the Right has put its stones remembering the dead of Covid, “said the presidential spokesperson in the video in which she could be seen next to Montero, who then deleted from her social networks after the rain of criticism she received. In a thread of two Twitter messages the official closed the discussion: “I deeply regret if any family member of covid victims who has paid tribute to their loved ones by symbolically leaving stones, was offended by my words. I sincerely apologize and reiterate my respect and accompaniment to the pain and mourning.”
I made a mistake in wanting to point out the political use of pain and death that some sectors made and continue to do.
The whole society will be marked by this time of anguish that we begin to leave behind collectively. — Gabriela Cerruti (@gabicerru)
November 11, 2022
“I made a mistake in wanting to point out the political use of pain and death that some sectors did and continue to do. The whole society will be marked by this time of anguish that we begin to leave behind collectively,” he added. Despite the “sincere discupas” for her statements about the “right-wing” ideology of the deceased of COVID-19 that she expressed in the message, the spokesperson reinforced the “political use of pain and death that some sectors did and continue to do”, when without going any further, the ruling party during the pandemic also made political use of the situation and even a VIP vaccination was experienced, When many of the people who have a tribute on those stones were dying from the disease. Another of the politicians who lent his thoughts regarding the past, a little further away, was Luis Juez who on Saturday night at Mirtha Legrand’s table took the floor and said: “No Argentine can say that democracy changed his life. People are having a really hard time. There is a lot of fanaticism and violence comes from above. One sees that the one who has the power thinks he is right, but it is not so. They want to impose reason with force and society notices that.”
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He added: “We fell the middle class, an aspirational class, which wanted things for their children and today is not happening.” However, former Spanish MP Pilar Rahola replied: “I cannot accept that phrase, forgive me. Democracy always saves lives, with respect to dictatorships.” In accordance with the sayings of Pilar Rahola, many Argentines can affirm that democracy changed their lives, because democracy can always be improved, but there is no person who says that they steal their children, kidnap them, torture and kill them for thinking differently, censor them, among many other atrocities committed by the last dictatorship. Economically, it was not a time of prosperity either. Almost 40 years after the return to democracy, a politician with governmental aspirations should not affirm such a phrase on open television. Meanwhile, on Sunday, National Labor Minister Raquel “Kelly” Olmos sat on a Channel 9 Public Opinion program and as soon as she entered the air she said: “I think you have to work all the time because of inflation, but a month is not going to make a big difference. And on the other hand, from the emotional point of view, from what it means for all Argentines, we want Argentina to be champions.” Although compared to the sayings of Luis Juez and Gabriela Cerruti, Olmos’ phrase ends up being minimal, in a country with galloping inflation, which accumulates an 88% price variation in the last twelve months and hits the pocket of the most vulnerable.The fact that the head of the labor portfolio, who should work so that inflation does not liquefy workers’ salaries, says that you can stop working because of inflation in the month of the World Cup since it will not make “a big difference”, is outrageous for workers who do not make ends meet.
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After the criticism, the Minister of Labor sent a statement apologizing for the statements, since she did not know how to express it “with the clarity” with which she thinks it: “It is evident that I have not been able to clearly express my position regarding the option ‘lower inflation or that Argentina wins the World Cup,'” Olmos said and added: “If it has been interpreted to mean that for me it is better to ‘win the World Cup’, it has been because I gave my answer to the question in a way that leads to that conclusion.” I apologize for having entangled a simple issue and of which I am convinced: it is very important that Argentina wins the World Cup for what it would mean emotionally for the Argentines, but by stating that that month ‘will not make a difference’ in the fight against inflation, I did not mean that we will be standing for a month watching the World Cup without doing anything to reduce the indices. The head of the labor portfolio rectified. In turn, the one who had a furcio last night in the program of Joaquín Morales Solá in TN, was the former President of the Nation Mauricio Macri, who after being asked about the candidates to win the next World Cup, responded, after listing the characteristics of some teams, that “Germany can never be ruled out because, Superior race, they always play to the end.”
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The designation “master race” in Germany refers directly to the Holocaust. The argument of superior race was the one used by Adolf Hitler to murder Jews during the regime of Nazi Germany. Every person who went through high school and knows the bare minimum of history understands what happened between 1934 and 1945.
Yesterday talking about the World Cup and obviously referring to the indisputable football skills of Germany I had an ill-advised phrase that refers to the worst nightmares of humanity, so I want to clarify it and offer my apologies. — Mauricio Macri (@mauriciomacri)
November 15, 2022
After the rain of criticism, the former president clarified: “Yesterday talking about the World Cup and obviously referring to the indisputable football skills of Germany I had an ill-advised phrase that refers to the worst nightmares of humanity, so I want to clarify it and offer my apologies. ” Finally, another who was at the center of the controversy for his repudiable statements is Gildo Insfrans, who said with irony that Deputy María Eugenia Vidal went “a little while and discovered that Formosa has a delay of 27 years.”
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“I think her backwardness must be mental. Or those who inform him, “Insfrán finished among the applause of those attending the event, among which was, in the front row, the Minister of Environment, Juan Cabandié.En 2022, that a governor uses a mental retardation as an insult is brutal and also speaks of the backwardness that exists in Formosa regarding education, if its maximum political representative refers to a deputy in that way to “disqualify” her and in turn, All those attending the event applaud him. To speak in this way about a disease, without taking into account the people to whom harm is generated, to use it as a disqualification, speaks of the disorientation of the leaders.
Insfran was so screwed that he toured and showed the misery of his government, that today he came out to tell me that he had a “mental retardation”. Violent, mythomaniac and authoritarian: this is the model governor of Kirchnerism. pic.twitter.com/IkncF9UMpT — María Eugenia Vidal (@mariuvidal)
November 15, 2022
In response, Vidal said: “Insfran was so screwed that he travels and shows the misery of his government, that today he came out to tell me that he had a “mental retardation.” Violent, mythomaniac and authoritarian: this is the model governor of Kirchnerism.”
