President Fernández outraged by ‘coup attempt’ in Brazil
Leaders from across political spectrum in Argentina condemn violent attack by pro-bolsonaro supporters.
President Alberto Fernández called on the region to unite against “anti-democratic” mob attacks in Brazil after supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro stormed the three branches of government in Brasilia last weekend.
“I want to express my repudiation of what is happening in Brasilia. My unconditional support and that of the Argentine people to @Lulaoficial in the face of this coup attempt he is facing,” the Peronist leader wrote on his Twitter account.
Inathreadoftweets,argentina’s president emphasised that “democracy is the only political system that guarantees freedoms and obliges us to respect the verdict of the people.”
He warned that “those who try to disregard the will of the majority are an attack on democracy and deserve not only the appropriate legal sanction, but also the absolute rejection of the international community”.
Fernandez added that “as president of CELAC [Community of Latin American and Caribbean States] and of Mercosur, I warn the member countries to unite against this unacceptable antidemocratic reaction that Brazil is trying to impose.”
Argentina’s president also demanded a regional show of “total support to the democratically elected government of Brazilians headed by President Lula.”
In turn, Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero expressed his solidarity with Lula “in the face of the right-wing coup actions in Brazil.”
Vice-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner also condemned the attack, attributing it to “hate speech in the media and social networks.”
Attributing the attack to “the new right wing,” she called on governments to carry out “a profound and stark analysis of this phenomenon, beyond the existence of organisers, financiers and perpetrators.”
OPPOSITION CONDEMNATION
A host of opposition leaders in Argentina slammed the scenes in Brasília, including former president Mauricio Macri.
The 2015 to 2019 head of state repudiated the “violent acts” in Brazil and expressed his solidarity with Lula. Comparing the scenes in Brazil to protests against pension reform in Argentina in front of Congress in December 2017, he said such scenes endangered “peace and democratic stability.”
Macri, however, wasn’t shy in using the attack on democracy for some political point-scoring. Pointing the finger at the Kirchnerite sector of the ruling Frente de Todos coalition, he declared: “We must not forget that the Kirchnerism that today shows itself shocked by the events in Brazil is the same that in 2017 organised, promoted and starred in the violent assault on the Congress of the Argentine Nation” when he was president.
Buenos Aires City Mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, a likely presidential candidate for the opposition next October, also issued a statement repudiating the attack in Brasília.
“Deep concern for the assault on the institutions of democracy i n Brazil. My absolute condemnation of the violent action and my total solidarity and support for @Lulaoficial and all the people of Brazil,” Rodríguez Larreta wrote.