Argentine Vice President Cristina Kirchner told a mission of MEPs, at a meeting an hour before Thursday’s attempted attack, that the judicial process against her is politicized, according to parliamentarian Maria Manuel Leitão Marques.
“It was a serene meeting. For our part, since it is an inescapable issue, we say that [desejávamos que] the process was carried out without political interference. The vice president (Cristina Kirchner) reacted by saying that ‘the process already had political interference’ and the conversation (on this subject) ended here”, said Lusa Leitão Marques, coordinator for Latin America of the Group of Socialists and Democrats in Parliament. .European.
Socialist Maria Manuel Leitão Marques is part of a delegation that recently visited Brazil and Chile, and the trip to Argentina lasts until Saturday.
The three elements that make up the mission of deputies of the Group of Socialists and Democrats of the European Parliament met this Thursday in Buenos Aires with the head of state, Alberto Fernández, and later with the vice president Cristina Kirchner.
We hoped that the vice president would speak more about this issue because it is an issue that should concern her and that agitates her followers, but she fell short on the point of the conversation when we referred to the process”, explained Maria Manuel Leitão Marques. about the meeting, which took place an hour before the attack on Kirchner in the Argentine capital.
Argentina is experiencing a period of strong political tension as Kirchner faces a corruption case.
Supporters of the current vice president have been gathering in the streets around the house where he lives since last week, when a prosecutor asked Kirchner to sentence him to 12 years in prison, as well as disqualification for life from holding public office in the case of alleged corruption in public works when he was head of state in Argentina (2007-2015).
A man was arrested in Buenos Aires after he tried to fire a firearm at Cristina Kirchner at a time when the vice president was participating in a vigil with supporters in the area where she lives.
The attacker infiltrated the vigil in support of the vice president and former head of state of Argentina.
In Lusa, Maria Manuel Leitão Marques stressed that the MEPs who are part of this mission have already condemned the attempted aggression, lamenting the situation of political polarization.
In the next few days I think this atmosphere will worsen. Soon I will see how the demonstration goes (in support of the vice president), but I think this atmosphere of polarization will worsen “, between supporters and detractors of the vice president, she said.
“This always breeds violence in a country with a history of violence. (Argentina) is a country that was built with many internal wars and that had a very violent military dictatorship process and (…) when you light a match, sometimes you do not control the fire, ”he warned.
The MEP also said that the meeting with the Vice President of Argentina on Thursday, which “passed calmly”, addressed the “importance of strengthening ties” between Latin America and Europe, “combating the fear of excessive polarization around relations between the United States.” and China” and the issue of the war in Ukraine was also discussed.
As happened during the visit to Brazil, the MEPs from the Group of Socialists and Democrats spoke “in general” about the need to combat “violence in the streets”.
In this sense, Maria Manuel Leitão Marques said that the European Union should pay more attention to Latin America.
Last year, the Socialists and Democrats wrote a letter to the President of the European Commission drawing attention to the fact that, “for the second time in the State of the Union address”, Ursula von der Leyen referred to “many areas of the world”, but ignoring Latin America.
It is the region of the world culturally closest to the European Union, with which we can develop cultural, political and economic relations, but we must pay more attention to it and that is the reason for our visit. We have a lot of cooperation, but we have to give more political weight to their diversity,” he said.
This Friday, the mission of MEPs from the Group of Socialists and Democrats will meet, if the agenda is maintained, with European ambassadors in the Argentine capital.
Source: Observadora