MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Philosophy and politics on Cristina K?s electoral trail

Argentina?s First Lady and presidential candidate Cristina Kirchner said that in current times Latinamerican leaders ?look more like their voters? and as a political leader ?we?re more modest, and humbly dream we can change the country and the region?.

?I don?t know if they are left wing, right wing, end wing or whatever wing, but now it?s more simple: rulers look more alike those they rule?, said Mrs Kirchner during a conference in an International Philosophy Congress held in the province of San Juan. As a political leader she admitted her desire ?to change the country and the region? which proves a bit distant from her youth years. ?If at sometime, as members of a generation, we dreamt with changing the world, today we?re far more humble: we?re just dreaming with changing our country and the region?. Mrs Kirchner who next Thursday will officially launch her presidential candidacy for next October 28 election said that Argentina needs ?a mental opening? and willingness ?to accept what?s different?. Working on the idea of permanent ?transformation? which apparently is going to be the axis of her political message for the presidential campaign, Mrs Kirchner said it was essential to respect diversity of ideas, countering the so called only line of thinking which has emerged since globalization took off. Addressing an estimated 3.000 Argentine and foreign intellectuals Mrs Kirchner said ?nobody should be scared of what is new, of changes? because that is what makes sense to ?philosophy, politics and life?. Mrs Kirchner location and moment for her address, supposedly on philosophy, nevertheless had a profound political message. It was 58 years ago that then President Juan Domingo Peron, (the man who changed Argentine politics in the mid XXth century) in a Philosophy Congress held in neighbouring province of Mendoza, established his third option or alternative to the Socialist Utopia and Western Capitalism. Something the Argentine leader defined as ?the organized community? and one of the founding pillars of the Justicialista (justice) doctrine of the political movement he created and has since dominated Argentine politics. With the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Senator Kirchner made it a point to insist on respect for the ?diversity of ideas?. ?We must have a mental opening that prepares us to accept that other people also have the right to think, that there might be people who have a different conception of a political association?, she underlined. The event was also marked by the presence of several provincial governors who sat in the first row of the auditorium, particularly Julio Cesar Cobos, who is tipped to complete the presidential ticket with Cristina for the coming election.