MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine President celebrates 40 years of democratic rule

“We built democracy, we live in freedom, let us achieve equality,” President Fernández said

During his last Legislature opening speech, Argentine President Alberto Fernández Wednesday lashed out at the country's Judiciary claiming magistrates seek to disenfranchise Vice-President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (CFK).

The head of state was also particularly critical of the media, which -he said- were particularly keen on hiding the truth. Wednesday's was also the first joint public appearance of Alberto and Cristina in 9 months.

“When on December 10 this mandate that the people have given me ends, you can be sure that you will have had a President who has put his chest to every problem he has faced. Who, with successes and mistakes, will have put all his effort in finding ways out of the labyrinth in which history has locked us,” Fernández said.

The head of state also insisted the Judiciary has not had the people's confidence for decades, neither is it independent.

After being sentenced to 6 years in prison and disenfranchised for crimes committed during her time as president (2007-2015), Cristina Fernández said she would not run in the 2023 elections, saying she had been banned, which is technically correct were it not for the fact that her conviction is open to appeals, which could take years.

President Fernández explained there was a structure “involving members of the Judiciary, the media and opposition politicians” which occasionally may even include mmembers of the intelligence services. “The intelligence personnel of the State is no longer linked to the judges,” he stressed while calling for the “deepening of the investigation” of the Sept. 1 attack suffered by the vice-president.

Fernández also insisted his administration has endured “a systematic action of disinformation” by media outlets representing “economic and political interests opposed to the Government.” He also pointed out that Argentina was one of the countries “that grew the most” in the last two years despite the growing inflation. “I understand the discomfort and the complaint of the weakest. But I also see what is right,” and how it is hidden by some de facto powers who “generate discouragement and uneasiness.”

President Fernández also celebrated 40 years of uninterrupted democracy by saying that “true freedom is born from equality.”

“I cannot be indifferent to see the asymmetries that separate this wonderful city of Buenos Aires from corners of the country where the dreams of Argentine men and women who seem to be condemned to oblivion are postponed,” he added in reference to a Supreme Court ruling granting CABA's government a larger share of the so-called federal co-participation funds.

“We are ethically obliged to put an end to so much inequality and to bring out of poverty those who have been submerged in poverty due to policies that concentrate wealth with this centralist criterion that generates so much rejection in the interior of the country,” Fernández argued.

“Unfortunately, the actions of the members of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation led us to file a request for impeachment before the House of Deputies, which will decide whether to impeach them before the Senate. Any argument that the claim is a violation of the Republic or the rule of law is false. They only have to go and read articles 53 and 59 of our National Constitution”, he remarked and assured that “there is no attack or onslaught against Justice.”

“We built democracy, we live in freedom, let us achieve equality,” President Fernández said.