Anyhow, the president spoke (again, people are getting kind of tired of the barricade speeches) for 26 uninterrupted minutes, with all of the ministers watching and her husband in the shadows, carefully assessing the situation. Needless to say, CGT's leader Moyano and Piquetero Luis d'Elia were among the celebrities who assisted to the VIP spots.
I think the president still has not grasped the essence of the situation, which sge tries to describe as follows:
- Those evil farmers want to leave uus without food
- Those evil farmers want to grab all of the wealth
- Those evil farmers are just a few large landowners, the "common" farmer in fact likes the government
- No democratically elected president in Argentina has been as attacked as she has been in the first 100 days
- She is convinced part of the reason this is happening is because she is a woman (?)
- We will not allow Argentina to go back to the past (?)
- Help me unite the country
The two last points, besides the government's clear meddling into private affairs and private sector profitability, are the two that worry me the most. Mme President has indirectly pointed to the farmers and compared them to the military coup from 1976. What on earth do they have to do with one another? No one knows ... what we do know, is that she is holding on to her president chair and sending out a preemptive message to anyone trying to destabilize her: she fill fight tooth and fang. The farmers do not want to take over the power, they just want to be able to carry out their activities as free from Government intervention as possible (the debate could go on for hours, since the high exchange rate which favors them is also generated by official policy ...).
The last point seems hypocritical at best. With her March 25th speech, she was the first to disrupt peace and separate the country. Since then, it took her 3 more speeches to tone down her fervor and passion, and we can still see that she is unwilling to negotiate what was described by vice-president Cobos as "somewhat rash" (the March 12th announcement of increasing soybean export taxes).
My point is this: people did not come out to the streets last week to support the farmers in its entirety; they came out to protest against the government's attitude and to defend the freedom of the private over the public. Until Mme President understands thatm she will have a very hard time managing the country, because this is bound to happen again.
As for the first 100 days, a short analysis and comparison between her first 100 days and her husband's are under way. Stay tuned!
