In the context of Argentina ’s no-holds-barred domestic politics, the election of Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio to the papacy presents a challenge to the president, Cristina Kirchner.
While he was archbishop of Buenos Aires the two
clashed bitterly, Ms Kirchner comparing his criticisms of her
administration to the Inquisition.
But the elation in Argentina at one of their own becoming pope has forced her government into a new approach.
Remarkable U-turn
Remarkable U-turn
The president’s Peronist movement has, in less than a week, executed a remarkable U-turn and is now claiming Pope Francis as one of its own.
The president led a huge delegation to his first
public Mass at the Vatican, while back home, her loyalists are quickly
rewriting history.
Over the weekend Buenos Aires was plastered
with posters of Pope Francis, with the slogan “Argentinian and
Peronist”. Secretary of internal trade and Kirchner loyalist Guillermo
Moreno is suspected of being behind the blitz.
Meanwhile, Gabriel Mariotto, vice-governor of
Buenos Aires province and another key ally of Ms Kirchner, celebrated
the election, telling a local radio station that “beyond the nuances and
differences, Bergoglio is a great Peronist”.
‘A Peronist and a comrade’
‘A Peronist and a comrade’
Emilio Pérsico, a leader of the pro-Kirchner Peronist militant
group Movimiento Evita, also appeared in the media calling Francis “a
Peronist and a comrade” and claimed he had celebrated a “secret” Mass to
pray for the health of recently deceased Venezuelan president Hugo
Chávez.
But others condemned the campaign. Horacio
González, the director of Argentina’s national library and one of
Kirchner’s leading intellectual backers, told a meeting: “It cannot be
that our comrades enter into this fraud” calling the campaign “a
transcendent backward political step”.