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ENGLISH VERSION
Pawn takes queen?
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| HERALD STAFF |
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VERSIÓN ESPAÑOL
¿Peón toma dama?
Faltando menos de un mes para las elecciones presidenciales del 28 de octubre, la campaña sigue privada de suspenso y contenido por igual, y ambas fallas pueden atribuirse sobre todo a la candidata oficialista, la primera dama y Senadora Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Tal vez la falta de suspenso no es su culpa, pero se vuelve más importante tanto para el país como para el mundo conocer sus futuros planes de gobierno. Negándose firmemente a realizar debates o entrevistas con los medios en su país, se muestra apenas más comunicativa en sus cada vez más frecuentes viajes al exterior, como lo muestra el modo en que eludió las preguntas incómodas en el almuerzo del Consejo de las Américas el miércoles.
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With less than one month to go before the October 28 presidential elections, the campaign remains bereft of suspense and content alike and both these failings can be laid largely at the door of the ruling party’s candidate, the first lady Senator Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. The lack of suspense might not be her fault but then it becomes all the more important for both the country and the world to know her future government plans. Firmly refusing debate or media interviews at home, she is hardly more communicative on her increasingly frequent trips abroad, as the way she dodged the awkward questions at the Council of the Americas lunch on Wednesday shows.
The motive for this coy strategy is generally assumed to be a reluctance to harm her lead by running the risk of being wrong-footed by a debate rival or a press interviewer, but the reasons could well be internal rather than external — the first lady fears rocking the boat far more than running into any storms. As things now stand, only Cabinet Chief Alberto Fernández (despite some appalling errors) and a couple of ministers can feel safe in their posts. All other members of the Néstor Kirchner administration with their jobs on the line are potentially more dangerous enemies than anybody in the feckless opposition (as the mid-year scandals surrounding the stray cash in former economy minister Felisa Miceli’s office and the Aeroparque suitcase would seem to demonstrate) and it is very difficult to offer the public any real policy changes without arousing the vicious survival instincts of some key official. Thus the outrage over manipulated prices is so great that Domestic Trade Secretary Guillermo Moreno has been forced into announcing his departure at the end of the year (it is also probably no coincidence that a dispute over the true level of inflation was allowed to arise in the province of the first lady’s running-mate, Mendoza Governor Julio Cobos) — although whether Moreno will in fact go remains to be seen, especially if Mrs. Kirchner’s majority is less than convincing. In this context it seems far more tempting to try to coast to victory rather than to risk any policy signals.
Yet even such timid signals as Moreno’s future exit or the smothered debate in Mendoza are no substitute for a frontal attack on the burning issues of the day such as inflation and also crime (especially after the discovery of the kidnapped rancher Francisco White’s body on Thursday). Is it not about time that our presumed future president showed herself to be a leader rather than a creature of opinion polls and her own machine?
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