As has happened in the economy and for very similar reasons, the country’s political institutions are suffering a degenerative process that prevents them from functioning well. As it becomes increasingly difficult to stay afloat in a society in which half, perhaps more, of the population is already mired in poverty, politicians, overwhelmed by socioeconomic problems that they do not know how to solve, feel that they have no alternative but to to privilege their own interests and those of their family and friends. It is not surprising, then, that the Buenos Aires legislature acts as a kind of enormous leech that feeds on the population of the impoverished district it supposedly serves.
Like its counterparts in other provinces and many municipalities, the “honorable” institution has become accustomed to giving priority to raising the money, a lot of money, that politics – that is, politicians and their partners – need to cover their needs. bills. Since provincial senators and deputies do not want to formally increase their income, since in that case they would have to justify a measure that would be criticized by everyone, they prefer to obtain in another way the funds that they swear they need to allow them to properly fulfill their democratic duties.
There is a certain similarity between the collection method chosen by Vice President Cristina Kirchner and her colleagues and that of the Buenos Aires politicians. It consists of favoring certain people and then forcing them to return a percentage, sometimes substantial, of what was granted. They can do it by pretending to occupy rooms in hotels that are left empty or by arranging for a leader to take over a good part of the salaries of the gnocchi, alive or dead, who answer to him, a modality that was exposed in La Plata when misinformed police arrested a subject with fifty debit cards that he used to withdraw money from the ATM of a central branch of Banco Provincia. Needless to say, the man, Julio “Chocolate” Rigau, was soon released by order of judges who found nothing wrong with what he did. It would seem that in his opinion it was perfectly normal for a leader to withdraw money from the accounts of his subordinates.
With few exceptions, the representatives of the people who occupy seats in the legislature understand that it would not be in their best interest to violate the pact of silence that protects the system that benefits them so much. For them, solidarity begins at home. Although it would have been assumed that Javier Milei, the mortal enemy of the political “caste”, would immediately take advantage of what happened to furiously denounce the corruption that in his opinion and that of many others is one of its most notable characteristics, he preferred to ignore it. . He was also in no hurry to express his indignation at what had happened to Patricia Bullrich; It would not be in her interest to anger members of her own party or her radicals who believe she is an extreme rightist. One of the few politicians who did dare to break ranks turned out to be Ricardo López Murphy, a man who has the disconcerting habit of taking the principles he claims very seriously; He signed a letter in which he asks “to go to the last consequences to dismantle the networks of corruption that degrade our democratic system and harm our citizens.”
Over time, other politicians began to express their displeasure at the willingness of most of their peers to treat the matter as an insignificant anecdote, hoping that no one would think of trying to investigate it, but unfortunately for them, the “scandal of the cards” is already part of national political folklore.
Needless to say, Argentina is far from the only country in which politics is a very lucrative business. There are corrupt people everywhere who have the complicity, active or passive, of colleagues who are supposedly honest but who, out of corporate loyalty or whatever, choose to tolerate their behavior. In democratic countries of Europe. North America and East Asia, there are many people, some of whom are internationally famous, who have managed to accumulate impressive fortunes by taking advantage of the opportunities offered by their profession. Some have done it with legal means, but there are also others, such as the powerful Democratic senator Bob Menéndez in the United States, who have not hesitated to violate not only the rules but also the forms, hence the most recent scandal that has the American political world in which there are dozens of senators and representatives who, in one way or another, have managed to become multimillionaires. One who is under suspicion of illicitly enriching himself is President Joe Biden.
Be that as it may, while in prosperous countries the spokesmen of the local political class can say that all its members, including beginners, deserve to live well because they contribute a lot to the common well-being, here they are not able to justify behavior in the same way. of those who make a living from politics because the consensus is that, as a whole, politicians are responsible for the ruin of the country. While in the developed world corruption is usually taken as an issue of limited importance that does not have much impact on the quality of life of the majority of citizens, in countries where everything seems to work so badly that they are incapable of progress, it is legitimate to consider it. one of the fundamental causes of a failure that affects almost everyone.
The reason why almost all politicians have remained silent in the face of an episode as scandalous as the one involving Chocolate is simple; Members are involved not only from the different varieties of Peronism, especially that of Sergio Massa, but also radicals, members of Pro and, surely, men and women who are trying to get on the bandwagon pulled by Milei. A few weeks before the elections, those who are competing for the presidency do not want to take the risks that a new political earthquake would entail, with resignations, trials and who knows what else that could unleash a case with so many ramifications. It is therefore logical that the majority of the members of the great political family have clung to the mafia law of omertà; They know that, in the short term at least, virtually no one would be in a position to gain much from what happened, which is why it would be better for them to try to cover it up with a cloak of silence.
Although, judging by what the polls say, the majority believe that corruption is one of the country’s most urgent problems and that it is behind its evident inability to get out of the viscous swamp in which it is sinking, politicians are usually reluctant to combat it. In addition to knowing full well that a genuine purge could harm allies and friends, which is why they feel constrained to close their eyes, even the most scrupulously honest understand that at any moment they themselves could fall victim to a campaign of falsehoods.
Indeed, the reputation of politicians as a whole is so ugly, and so many judges are willing to subordinate the law to the interests of their political godfathers, that they are all aware that attempting to defend themselves against malicious accusations would be virtually impossible for them. . It turns out that “lawfare” is not, as Cristina Kirchner and Jorge Bergoglio say, something used only by “the right” to harass popular governments, since for years it has been one of the favorite weapons of groups that claim to be progressive. They use it to bother conservative governments by accusing them of violating international agreements.
Few may be truly convinced that all politicians are equally corrupt, but the difficulty of distinguishing between those who would never dream of seizing someone else’s property even though it would be easy for them to do so and hardened criminals makes the relatively limited impact more understandable. that Cristina’s legal misfortunes have had. Although at this point there is no doubt that the vice president has been guilty of a multitude of corruption crimes, including those that led to her sentence, which is still appealable, to six years in prison and perpetual disqualification from holding public office, The Kirchnerists who defend her do not believe that they are explicit kleptocrats but rather fair-minded people who consider that it is very unfair to discriminate against their boss who, in their opinion, at most exaggerated a little without committing crimes worse than those perpetrated by other politicians.
Likewise, the fact that, by reducing Cristina’s political power, the judicial offensive that threatens to put a definitive end to her spectacular public career has been redoubled, suggests that ultimately everything depends on the level of support that those accused of appropriating have. of public funds. It would seem that here the most powerful continue to be above the law and that nothing significant will happen until a leader who remains extremely popular is convicted and imprisoned.
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