“I’m not going to fall for the psychopath that you’re trying to do. First of all, you disrespect me because the truth is, tell me, genius, I don’t know who you think you are. Because what you are representing is precisely what is not needed in the community, which is promoting violence when order is offered and being able to have a formal job. My neighbors from Quilmes elected me to put order in this municipality. What you are doing, even hurting a neighbor who was doing a procedure, I am not going to allow it,” he said Mayra Mendoza in a leaked audio.
The provincial deputy and former mayor had a telephone conversation with Juan Grabois that ended up leaking to the media. This Monday morning was marked by a high-voltage verbal confrontation between the Kirchnerist leaders, after the protest and incidents in the Quilmes Deliberative Council over an ordinance that seeks to regulate the activity of car-sitters, known as “trapitos.”
According to journalistic sources, the conflict originated when the mayor promoted an ordinance to formalize and regulate the metered parking service and include pre-existing car attendants under formal working conditions. The measure, defended as part of an urban planning plan, was rejected by the MTE, which maintains that the initiative leaves out informal workers and could mean the loss of livelihoods for hundreds of families in an already tense socioeconomic context.
In the alleged “phone call” and the exchanged messages that were made known to the media, the former mayor of Quilmes harshly questioned the social leader for “lacking respect” and for promoting what she considered an unnecessary confrontation, accusing him of seeking to “drive the rest of the people crazy” at a time when the population is facing economic difficulties. Mendoza even went so far as to question the representativeness of Grabois’s leadership within the Peronist space by raising questions about “what your leadership is and what you truly represent.”
For his part, Grabois was not far behind and used his public platforms to respond harshly. Through messages on social networks, he described as “garca” those he considered responsible for the police repression during the protest and denounced that the municipal government and the province had enabled the use of force against militants and workers. The social leader also accused the local government of carrying out a “rigged privatization” of the parking service and of closing instances of social dialogue in a context of crisis.
The crossing cannot be separated from broader tensions within Peronism and Kirchnerism in particular, where internal disputes have intensified in the face of the electoral calendar. Grabois, a representative of Patria Grande and popular economy organizations, has been expressing strong questioning of members of La Campora, such as Mendoza, and other sectors of Peronism for what he interprets as attempts to hegemonize the space and settle candidacies and positions of power.
Political analysts consulted by different media highlight that a deeper rivalry is revealed between two conceptions of action within Kirchnerism: on the one hand, an institutional and territorial management strategy associated with La Cámpora and the traditional political leadership of Buenos Aires Peronism; on the other, a view from social organizations that demands prominence and questions the priorities of the electoral assembly and the decisions that affect the most vulnerable sectors. This Monday’s clash, with repercussions on the national political agenda, illustrates how internal tension can quickly transfer to the field of management and public communication.
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