Aiming the impeachment of four judges of the Supreme Court of Justice of Argentina, the Argentine president, Alberto Fernández, sent a document to Congress asking for the opening of the process of dismissal of civil servants from the high court. The letter was published on Tuesday (3) by the president on his social networks. Together with him, the governors of 12 of the 24 Argentine provinces sign the document. Fernández says that the Judiciary is advancing over other powers and denounces the proximity of judges to opposition politicians, especially in the capital Buenos Aires, which, according to the president, needs to “share its wealth”.
With less support than expected, Fernández continues with the impeachment request, in particular against the president of the court, Horacio Rosatti, who was Minister of Justice of Néstor Kirchner (1950-2010), Cristina’s husband and predecessor in the presidency, but appointed to the court by Mauricio Macri, rival of the Peronists.
A day before the conviction of his deputy, Cristina Kirchner, for corruption, Fernández had already requested, in December, the investigation of a trip in which Julián Ercolini, the judge who convicted Cristina, would have participated.
The fight with the judiciary is, at the moment, the thorn in Fernández’s side, but the attack on judges is historically one of the flags of Kirchnerism.
“In recent months, we have seen an inadmissible advance of the Judiciary over the other Powers in Argentina. Several publications, never contradicted, make clear what I have been warning for a long time: the scandalous connection between part of politics and Justice”, wrote the president on social networks.
Transfers to Buenos Aires, whose mayor is from the opposition
At the end of December, the conflict escalated over the judges’ decision to transfer taxes collected by the federal government to the states. Among the measures, the Supreme Court guaranteed an increase in the co-participation quota destined to Buenos Aires: the equivalent of 2.95% of the funds of the so-called federal co-participation for the capital. According to the Judiciary’s decision, the city should receive 180 billion pesos (R$5.49 billion), in addition to what it already receives.
By order of Vice President Cristina Kirchner, Peronist governors encouraged Alberto Fernández to disobey the decision. Former congresswoman Elisa Carrió, leader of the opposition Civic Coalition party, filed a complaint against the presidency along with legislators from the opposition bloc, accusing Fernández of crimes of insurrection, judicial disobedience, abuse of authority and violation of the duties of a public official. The denunciation extended to other members of the government, such as the Minister of the Interior, Eduardo de Pedro, the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, and the Chief of Staff, Juan Manzur.
“These behaviors are an affront to the republican system of government, as they not only publicly challenge the constitutional authority of one of the branches of government, but also weaken republican institutions and appear to constitute crimes of public action,” reads the complaint. The liberal United Republicans party also filed a criminal complaint.
This controversy began in 2020, when the Fernández government cut the resources that were supposed to be transferred to the capital – which is also an autonomous unit of Argentina, like the provinces. Buenos Aires has Horacio Rodríguez Larreta as mayor, one of the main opposition figures.
“It is inexplicable that the national State ignores, disobeys, prevents, refuses, omits or delays compliance with a decision, just because it is contrary to its intentions,” said Larreta.
Different opposition blocs began, still in 2022, to prepare an impeachment request against Fernández, the dismissal of part of the presidential cabinet and accusations of sedition.
The government supporters
In revenge, the president calls for the impeachment of judges. For leaders who support the initiative and attended a meeting at the Casa Rosada this week, the members of the court incurred “in violation of the Law of Public Ethics and in poor performance”.
The governors closest to the president held a press conference in which they announced the signature of the cassation request against the members of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (CSJN) and assured that “the provinces feel affected”. Furthermore, they considered that the superior court had incurred in the “poor performance of its functions” and denounced the “partiality” in its decisions.
“We observed a manifest bias, which means that the decisions favor a political bias”, reinforced the governor of Chaco, Jorge Capitanich. “We, the Argentine provinces, feel harmed by the capricious allocation of resources, without any type of basis or argument”, he stressed.
distribution of wealth
In a speech this Wednesday morning (4), in Posadas, Misiones, Fernández made a series of criticisms of the leaders of the national Executive who did not sign the request for the impeachment of members of the Judiciary and the mayor of Buenos Aires, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta .
The president also referred to the need for the country to become more federal. As he usually does in his speeches, he spoke of “forgotten” regions and the need to “do away with these two Argentinas: one in the center and the other in the North and South, with less possibilities for development.” In this sense, he guaranteed that “everything is more difficult outside the port of Buenos Aires” and asked that “equalization mechanisms” be sought.
“The residents of Misiones, with this heat, with this tropical zone, under this beautiful sun, have the same right as a Buenos Aires citizen to have a house, to have access to school, to have the public health that is available in the center of the country”, declared Fernández. “I am proud to say that I am from Buenos Aires and I fight a lot with my city so that it puts aside its opulence and is part of a better distribution of wealth”, he said.
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