“We put together a Secretariat”: the spoils of war State

“We put together a secretariat for you.” Textual phrase of the national legislator for the city of Buenos Aires Leandro Santoro that alludes to an offer by the then chief of staff of the Fernández administration, Santiago Cafiero. That is to say, this is not an isolated or novel political practice, but rather it draws attention in a context where the tide has receded and both the baseness of the ruling class and the state junk are on display. It’s not that this hasn’t happened before, but rather that at a time when our country is blessed by an international cycle of financial exuberance or raw materials flying through the clouds, all that black hole remains below sea level. For a while our miseries go to sleep, in honor of Joan Manuel Serrat.

In this sense, it was difficult for this type of political conduct to fall under the magnifying glass of social scrutiny in circumstances of ecstasy and apogee such as the one experienced by Argentina in 1993 at the hands of convertibility with poverty reaching a minimum peak of 27%. Or how it happened again in 2013 in the heat of the electoral crash of Cristina Kirchner and the expansive cycle of commodities fading with a metric of poverty similar to the one that Menemism enjoyed ephemerally during the crazy, for other damned, years 90. However, the context today is different. First of all, poverty is around 40% today. Secondly, there is an inflationary process that almost no economist today estimates below triple digits versus salaries that vary year after year below 70%, although with some exceptions that reach the union aristocracy that negotiates agreements above 100%, Hugo Moyano driving.

In this context, not only the anecdote recounted by Santoro remains under a powerful spotlight, but also an endless list of privileges, abuses and perhaps legal but illegitimate actions by our leadership that, deep down, reveal a much more serious problem: in a context where our country cries out for leadership and a lost direction since the early 1970s, a leadership behavior oriented towards enjoying benefits, the honeys of power, predominates, rather than administering responsibilities that can be framed within a results-oriented management paradigm . In vulgar soccer terms, I am not going to talk to you about the conditions to be met to play as number 5, 10 or goalkeeper, but about the position that I am going to invent for you so that none of us is left out. If we don’t show up with 11 but with 200 players it doesn’t matter. The objective is that we are and remain. Because of the impact of our work? Not that! It will always be praying that no one on Wall Street catches a cold or, as in Plata Dulce, for a saving harvest.

The two crossed polarizations

That Santoro’s story is not going to remain as a loose anecdote! Last week news came from Córdoba of an accident involving the president of the provincial legislature traveling in a high-end car that the court distributes to other public officials, of varied partisan extraction, in a kind of chain of happiness where no leader has to manage any mid-range gauchito model such as a Fiat Argos or a Renault Sandero but, oh coincidence! the judicial bolillero always sings BMW, Audi or some other mechanical jewel of those that we see in movies like The Transporter or Fast and Furious. At this point in the evening, how can you resist paraphrasing the old Italian adage? “It is not true that there is a political caste, it is trovato”. If it is not true that there is a political caste, it is still well imagined. Point in favor of Javier Milei.

As a bonus, Juan Grabois’s discussion in the queue to enter the country in Ezeiza after a trip to Rome paints a complete picture of the situation. Eye, let it be clear that there is no discussion here regarding tastes, preferences or opportunities, it is even foreseeable that the social leader is doing it as a member of the Vatican Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development. In any case, it is totally foreseeable that in this social context of the country a leader so identified with militancy in favor of the dispossessed will not pass the magnifying glass of public scrutiny in a queue at an international airport. Isn’t it perhaps a good time for those who manage expensive international responsibilities not to do so via an excellent professional Zoom account of US$14 for all items? It goes to the Foreign Ministry of course.

In summary, heading to 2023 it is very likely that two crossed polarizations will end up operating. In the first place, one that was very operative as of 2008 in particular, after the conflict with the countryside: Kirchnerism versus Macrism (or anti-Kirchnerism). Second, one that cuts across the first: caste versus ordinary people (or anti-caste). In other words, in the current state of affairs, it will not be enough for those who want to challenge Cristina by putting on the anti-Kirchnerist shirt, as happened in 2015 and somewhat less so in 2019, but they will also have to look towards a second polarization on the rise and whose thermometer is the growth of Milei in the polls: the idea is growing in a large part of society that there is a political, business and trade union leadership that cuts across the entire political arc that explains the country’s decline based on its abuses, perks, subsidies and rents of all colors. In that area, the next election 2023 and the future of the country will be resolved, of course.

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