MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Lula to appear at Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires this week

Like Cristina, Lula has also been persecuted by the judges, Máximo Kirchner said

Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva will attend celebrations in Buenos Aires on Dec. 10 marking a new anniversary of the return to democratic rule, which was announced in Buenos Aires.

It is also the day when the new lawmakers will take their seats in Congress after the Nov. 14 elections which were a defeat for the ruling Frente de Todos coalition (FdT)of President Alberto Fernández.

After the electoral defeat, Fernández called on his followers to go out and celebrate, which was grounds for criticism from the opposition while his loyal insisted that peaceful elections and democratic rule were a reason good enough for a celebration. The FdT did better at the Nov. 14 elections than at the Sept. 12 Mandatory, Simultaneous and Open Primary (PASO) elections although not enough to prevent its Senatorial leadership from falling.

In any case, the presence at Plaza de Mayo or a prominent international figure who is most likely to become Brazil's President yet again after the 2022 elections if surveys are anything to go by, would help the FdT deflect attention from its loss of Congressional power starting that day.

Deputy Máximo Kirchner, son of former Presidents Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, has called for a march at Plaza de Mayo Dec. 10 with “Alberto, Cristina and Lula.” The demonstration will mark Human Rights Day together with 38 years of the return of democracy.

“That day I invite the Argentine people to embrace someone who, like Cristina, suffered judicial persecution and who will once again be president of Brazil,” said Máximo Kirchner, referring to the founder of the Workers' Party (PT). “Politics is made with the people, not in the paragraphs of an article in a media outlet. It is done with the neighbours, in the streets,” he insisted.

Máximo Kirchner also addressed the COVID-19 pandemic and stressed Argentina's low incidence of the disease in addition to open borders and almost no restrictions before Summer, although it is on alert for the presence of the Omicron variant, which has already been spotted in Brazil and Chile.

The day will also mark Alberto Fernández as just halfway through his four-year presidency. Argentina will go to presidential elections in October 2023 and the ruling centre-left version of Peronism might start considering whether to support Alberto Fernández for reelection or find a more appealing candidate.