MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentines rally at Plaza de Mayo against attack on CFK

“I am pleased that the Argentine community is filling the squares today,” President Fernández said

Thousands of Argentines gathered Friday at Buenos Aires' iconic Plaza de Mayo to express their support for Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (CFK) and condemn any act of violence as a means to solve political differences. Similar demonstrations were held nationwide at each city's main square.

President Alberto Fernández had decreed a national holiday after the failed attack against CFK late Thursday.

Representatives of trade unions, social-, business, and human rights groups demonstrated in Plaza de Mayo. Actress Alejandra Darín, head of the Argentine Actors Association, read out a statement calling for unity and warning that social peace was “a collective responsibility.”

“The Argentine people are moved, shocked by what happened, including millions who do not sympathize with Cristina nor with Peronism. It is in honor of all our compatriots that we make this call for national unity but not at any price: hate outside,” the document stressed.

“Faced with the attempted assassination of the main political leader of the country, no one who defends the Republic can remain silent or put their ideological differences before the unanimous repudiation that this action entails. There is no way to relativize or minimize an assassination attempt,” it went on.

“Democratic life is incompatible with the actions of violent minorities that try to lead the rest of society by the nose, or force certain leaders to take increasingly sectarian positions in order to please their supposed electoral clientele,” it added.

“The legitimization of extreme speeches, of calls to aggression, of proposals that deny democratic legitimacy to the political adversary is neither innocent nor gratuitous,” the declaration went on.
“No one is individually responsible for the actions of others, but those who gave minutes of air time to hate speeches should reflect on how they have collaborated for us to reach this situation.”

Meanwhile, President Fernández met at Casa Rosada with political and social leaders whom they called to “put back into practice a democratic pact where violence is excluded, hate speech is eliminated and respect is a value.”

“I am pleased that the Argentine community is filling the squares today, vindicating coexistence, respect, democracy and celebrating that Cristina is well,” Fernández stressed.

The President highlighted the “common points” expressed during the meeting. “All of us who are here are part of the democratic community, and therefore the first thing we have to do is to say enough to make habitual what should not be habitual; to tolerate what we should not live with. Because democracy requires us to respect one another.”