A defiant Cristina Fernández de Kirchner called on her followers and the wider Peronist movement to prepare and organise themselves on Monday as she hinted that her arrest may be imminent.
The former president's Kirchnerite movement staged a show of strength on Peronist Resistance Day, with thousands of activists descending on the headquarters of the Partido Justicialista and leading party figures attending en masse.
Defiantly hinting that she expects a negative Supreme Court ruling on her corruption conviction to block her attempted return to politics, Fernández de Kirchner declared that with rivals like hers, “being imprisoned is a certificate of dignity” when “certain characters walk the streets free.”
Fernández de Kirchner was convicted of corruption offences in 2022 and handed a six-year jail term and lifetime ban from holding political office. She has appealed the conviction to the nation’s highest tribunal but the Supreme Court is yet to issue a ruling on her case.
Media reports this week suggested the decisive ruling could be issued in the coming days or weeks.
Reacting to the likely ruling, thousands of Peronist activists turned out on Monday night to hear Fernández de Kirchner. They were joined by leading Pj figures, including Buenos Aires Province Governor Axel Kifillof and Quilmes Mayor and staunch La Cámpora figure Mayra Mendoza.
“Some may believe they can defeat or humiliate us with this,” said Fernández de Kirchner.
“But when those who engineered mega-debt swaps, twice indebted the country to the International Monetary Fund, and continue indebting it … can walk the streets untouched, believe me, being imprisoned is a certificate of dignity. Believe it, because that’s how I feel,” she said, in a pointed jab at her political rivals, including former president Mauricio Macri.
She made clear she would not give up, stating: “Peronists are not like that mafia-style right who flee the country for three years and return after setting up legal task forces to persecute and jail businesspeople and activists, only to then walk free and be cleared of all charges.”
Throughout her speech, Fernández de Kirchner appeared to accept that the Supreme Court – which she labelled the “praetorian guard of economic power” – would soon order her arrest.
She called on the leadership of her Kirchnerite movement to help create an alternative proposition for voters that could step in once “this clown show of a government collapses.”
She warned that “the hegemonic sectors will not allow themselves to be caught off-guard again as they were in 2017, when they assumed that, after all the stigmatisation and defamation, we were finished.”
Fernández de Kirchner also made reference to her last spell in office, as vice-president in former president Alberto Fernández’s 2019-2023 government. The veteran politician said that while it had been possible then to construct an alternative to Argentina’s right, she admitted “it didn’t go well.”
Addressing the prospect of her arrest, she noted that “all it took was the announcement of my candidacy for the demons to be unleashed.”
Regardless of what happens to her personal freedom, Fernández de Kirchner predicted that “the people always come back.”
“Perhaps under different names and forms, but it’s always our duty as militants – no matter what happens, and something will happen, because they’re afraid and don’t believe we’re capable of building a real opposition,” she said, evoking the traditional language of the Peronist movement.
Slamming President Javier Milei’s government and “chainsaw” austerity policies, Fernández de Kirchner, “this model has an expiry date, it’s running out.”
“We know this because it’s a copy of what [former president José Alfredo] Martínez de Hoz did, and the convertibility scheme of the 1990s” in the Carlos Menem government.
“This clown government will eventually collapse, because these models have always failed. And they think that when it collapses, there’ll be nothing to take its place,” said Fernándeez de Kirchner.
The former president said she believes that “popular and political organisation will inevitably take shape, because history shows that the people always end up organising in self-defence.”
“Peronism must stay alert, listen to what’s happening – because this will end in a major crisis. There’s no chance this ends well,” she warned.
She called on the Peronist movement to come together to challenge Milei.
“A unity that ensures victory, just like we did in 2019. And despite extreme difficulties, we nearly pulled it off in 2023 – we were just two points away,” she recalled.
– TIMES/NA
Comments