MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Opposition lawmakers to seek impeachment of Argentine President for violating quarantine he had decreed

The Fernández celebrated First Lady Fabiola's birthday while people died alone or were subject to a curfew

Argentine opposition lawmakers Thursday announced they would be seeking the impeachment of President Alberto Fernández after the image of him holding a party in violation of his own urgency emergency decree (DNU) capping attendants and mandating distancing protocols became public knowledge.

A picture taken in July 2020 of the family gathering celebrating the birthday of First Lady Fabiola Yáñez portrayed a gathering featuring the head of state and many other attendants at a time they were forbidded on sanitary grounds.

Thus, the President himself was in violation of a quarantine which meant people died alone, away from their loved ones, while others were chased by law enforcement authorities for challenging the DNU.

Yañez's birthday party took place at the Olivos presidential residence while a strict quarantine known as Preventive and Obligatory Social Isolation (ASPO) was in force nationwide.

Juntos por el Cambio (JxC) Deputies Mario Negri, Luis Petri, Waldo Wolf and Cristian Ritondo announced their decision Thursday on social media to seek the removal from office of the President for the double standards he showed.

Fernández “has given moral slaps to all Argentines by making use of unacceptable privileges in the midst of the pandemic and the stricter quarantine that the Executive itself dictated,” said Negri.

“This is the end of a path of obscenities; I am not a sniper who calls for impeachment every day. That is why I have analyzed this carefully. Today we see that the drop overflowed the glass,” he added.

Negri admitted the motion has little chance of success “because two thirds are needed and Kirchnerism will block everything.” But nevertheless, “we want Congress to debate this,” he insisted.

“The country has been dishonored. If a non-Peronist president did all this they would be cracking him,” Negri went on.

“Mr. President of the Argentine Nation Alberto Fernández: you must explain to the Argentine people why you violated the norms that you yourself issued. If you have no explanation, you must submit to the same criminal consequences as imposed in the DNU,” JxC chairwoman Patricia Bullrich wrote on Twitter.