Esteban Bullrich he resigned his seat as senator with a powerful speech. In April, the leader said that he had been diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and, eight months later, he said goodbye to public life. During this time, he not only gave interviews to raise awareness about the need to promote research on the disease, but also created a foundation to work in this regard and dedicated himself to the drafting of an inclusive education bill that was approved on tables. and unanimously in its last session. His condition did not prevent him from continuing to do politics and, on the contrary, his story put the issue of disability.
The leader is not the only person with a disability with relevance in political life. The former president Gabriela michetti had an accident that left her paraplegic; something similar happened in childhood to the former Minister of Labor Jorge Triaca; to the ambassador in Brazil, Daniel scioli, they amputated an arm after a capsize with his boat; the former candidate for national deputy, Franco Rinaldi, was born with osteogenesis imperfecta, a disease known as “crystal bones”; and, the former Deputy Chief of Cabinet and current official of the Ministry of Transport, Jorge Rivas, suffered a violent robbery that left him tetraplegic.
According to the National Study on the Profile of People with Disabilities, developed by INDEC, in Argentina, 10.2% of the population has some type of disability. And although the cases mentioned are different from each other, they all share the space of politics.
Running limits: doing politics with a disability
Daniel scioli He was the only one who denied having felt that disability could represent some kind of obstacle in politics, perhaps due to the lesser impact that his situation may have compared to others. The former governor was one of the first to start speaking publicly about how he should manage on a day-to-day basis.
For Triaca, a motor disability, in politics, can make it difficult to meet in informal spaces or “the thread” in Congress: “We were deputies at the same time with Gabriela Y Rivas. They adapted some spaces for us in the hemicycle. That is very good, but it took away the possibility of participating in another way. It is known what a session is like: the deputies meet to negotiate, to speak or to pute. We had to find other ways, ”he says.
Michetti He insists that he never wanted his speech to revolve around his condition, but he also acknowledges that problems arise on a daily basis: “You go to the neighborhoods and it is very difficult to walk with the chair in an apartment that is not prepared, You arrive five minutes late to a meeting and they look at you with a dirty face, but they don’t know that you got up three hours ago because bathing and changing takes that long while it can take others 40 minutes, “he said. In addition to not being able to walk, the leader suffers from neuropathic pain and now a complication has been added to her shoulders due to overexertion. “Few people knew about my terrible pain that sometimes took me off the field, but I made an effort to stay inside,” he adds.
Rinaldi He says that he does not see that disability generates limitations in general terms, although it does in some specific aspects. “For example, they dropped my grades because the program couldn’t find the way around how to locate me in the studio because they had high tables and chairs,” he says.
Disability and prejudice
In a certain common sense, these people are classified as extremely vulnerable victims. “Sometimes I came across that look, although they were the least. I do not believe that my thoughts or political sayings gravitate differently because I am a person with a disability. And, if that were the case, it would be a consequence not of my disability, but of the prejudice established in part of society, “he says. Rivas.
“As soon as I entered the Legislature I had a strong fight with a legislator. Then he approached me in anguish to ask for my forgiveness, he told me how could he yell at me like that, at me that I was like this. I told him no, that on the contrary, I thanked him because it meant that he treated me like anyone else, “he recalls Michetti. For her, although less and less, still survives in society “that idea of ’poor, you have to take care of them'”.
The construction of “victims” or “heroes” is rejected by Rinaldi, who says that there is a third frequent position: “That of those who say that everyone has a disability. It is horrifying. It is not the same to see or not see, to walk or not,” he emphasizes.
For Triaca, “the exhibition of Bullrich perhaps it encourages others to participate in politics. “The ideal – everyone agrees – would be that the presence of a person with a disability in an influential place should not attract attention. They know that this still does not happen.” I feel safer talking about politics, “That is my passion, but it does not bother me to talk about disability. It is such an invisible topic that talking is good. precisely, to make it visible”, he concludes Rivas.
