Functional. Scioli, former candidate for president of Peronism, called to support the Bases Law: “We must accompany”

Former vice president during the presidency of Néstor Kirchnerformer governor of Buenos Aires between 2007 and 2015, former presidential candidate for the Front for Victoryalmost a pre-candidate for president for the Frente de Todos in 2023 and ambassador to Brazil during the Government of Alberto Fernández and Cristina Kirchner, are some of the main positions that Daniel Scioli held since the beginning of his political career in the Menemist decade.

After the electoral result of December 2023, he did not hesitate to accept Milei’s offer to remain in charge of the Argentine embassy in Brazil., despite the fact that the incoming Government was from the political force that had defeated the one that he, until that moment, was a member of. Less than two months before the presidential change, Scioli He would leave Brasilia behind to join the libertarian cabinet itself, heading the Ministry of Tourism and Sports.

This Tuesday, simultaneously with the beginning of the treatment of the Bases Law in the Senate committee, he gave a brief report to journalists from different media. Asked about the position of the senators from Unión por la Patria at the time of the vote, he maintained that “it is a time to accompany”. And he added that “one can be indifferent, be opposition for the sake of opposition, throw stones, or put up obstacles,” but “if one can help, why not I will do it.” And he added to try to justify his call: “Argentina is above any partisan issue.”

In this way, the former presidential candidate and one of the main figures of Peronism seeks to provide the Government with the votes it needs to be able to approve the Bases Law. A package of laws that does not have a single measure to benefit workers and retirees, but that seeks to guarantee important businesses to large businessmen and speculators.

Scioli’s course shows that the strategy of Cristina Kirchner and Peronism of choosing him as a presidential candidate to “confront the right” in 2015, was far from being a “master move” and that on the contrary, in addition to being defeated by Macri, over time he became part of the right, but of its most extreme version.

The subsequent two presidential candidates also chosen by Cristina Kirchner and the rest of Peronism did not stand out for being consistent with their campaign promises or for the interests or values ​​they promised they would defend. The case of Alberto Fernándezwho despite reaching the Government, quickly failed to fulfill his campaign promises, adjusted the majorities to pay the illegal debtinflation increased sharply and ended up paving the way for the emergence of Mileiis another that is part of the crisis that Peronism is dragging on.

The candidacy of Sergio Massa in the last elections it was the last chapter of that series. Described as a “traitor” by the most Christian sector, complicit and participant in the Macrista adjustment during 2015-2019, the man from the Embassy and Nordelta became the last hope of Peronism in crisis. After the defeat in the runoff, the candidate did not worry about not opposing the plans of “fascism” (as some Peronist sectors characterized Milei -only- during the campaign), but on the contrary He became an employee of the vulture fund, Greylock Capital.

Those three candidates were positioned as such despite the fact that for a large part of the social or electoral base of Kirchnerism and Peronism, they were not the most digestible. All three had been political adversaries in the past, so the resource used to justify these candidacies was that of the “lesser evil.”. That is, something that in itself does not have any virtue nor is it desirable, but that is, it is assumed, preferable in comparison with a “greater evil”; in this case, the successive candidates of the right-wing opposition or its ultra version.

In the cases of Scioli and Massa, this strategy led directly to electoral defeat, while in the case of Alberto Fernández, despite becoming president, he administered a Government that also ended up adjusting to the majorities, just as the “greater evil” candidates.

The end of that type of strategy during those three opportunities perhaps shows that it is necessary bet on a truly exit of the workers and the popular majoritiesleaving aside any type of electoral speculation that can only lead to political situations like the current one.