Senator Daniel Filmus of the ruling Victory Front (FpV) occupies Office 633 in the fourth floor of the Senate. He has been there since December 2007 and the latest polls show he is fighting head-to-head in Buenos Aires City against current UNEN lawmaker Fernando “Pino” Solanas to keep his seat.
Filmus welcomed the Herald to his office last week, before the political scandal over a leaked video involving Kirchnerite lawmaker Juan Cabandié broke out. His spokeswoman replied late last night that Filmus did not want to comment on the issue.
Do you agree with opposition leaders when they talk about the “end of a cycle” — meaning these are the last two years of Kirchnerism?
Of course not. You should take into account that the spine of Kirchnerism is Peronism — and many have been eager to sign its death certificate over the last 50 years: it was proscribed, they murdered and disappeared many of its supporters, they destroyed the unions … And still, Peronism remains a key force in Argentine history. It has had different kinds of leadership throughout the years, but these days it’s being labelled Kirchnerism, which takes a transformative stance, unlike during the 1990s, when it had a neoliberal view (then led by former president Carlos Menem).
What is at stake in the October 27 midterms?
This month will define what will happen between 2013 and 2015. We’re not going to discuss 2015 already. When the time comes we’ll be able to discuss different (political and economic) models and people will be able to choose an alternative — assuming alternatives appear, that is. In the 2011 (presidential) elections, the other models were conspicuous by their absence and the elected President (Cristina Fernández de Kirchner) pulled further ahead from the other candidates.
Your direct opponent in your struggle to retain a seat in the Senate seems to be UNEN leader Fernando “Pino” Solanas. What would you tell voters is the difference between you and him?
We have different views. Our work is easily recognizable because it has to do with what we’ve built over the last 10 years, plus the knowledge of what’s left to do. By the way, I think the latter is the issue that forces us to revise our strategy from the (August 11) primaries — we overemphasized what we’ve done. Our story must tell what is coming, how to improve people’s quality of life. We put kids back to school — how do we improve the quality of education? We brought unemployment down to 7 percent — how do we get to 3 percent? We fought unregistered work, but one out of three workers is still employed under the table. Our new campaign ads address these issues. Now — what does UNEN stand for? Inside UNEN you have one guy who supported the 125 (resolution that approved a hike of grain export duties) and another that led the resistance against the 125. Inside UNEN there’s one person saying we need to privatize companies that had been taken over by the government, and another who says we need to nationalize everything…
Well, inside the FpV there’s some politicians who want to lower the age of criminal responsibility and some who oppose the measure…
Of course, but we’re talking about different-sized issues. I welcome the fact that different opinions can coexist inside the FpV. Our difference with UNEN is that we have a pretty clear leadership — and the president has already said she opposes lowering the age of criminal responsibility.
In Buenos Aires City, Kirchnerism is represented by two tickets: the one led by Jorge Taiana and the one headed by Pablo Ferreyra. Do you prefer one over the other?
Yes. Our ticket is the one led by Taiana. Of course we are grateful that independent sectors, left-wing candidates and students have set up another list (supporting Fernández de Kirchner), but I’m a FpV candidate.
Why is it so hard for Kirchnerism to win the City?
Peronism has been historically associated with the lower classes, unlike the Radical (UCR) Party, which has been tied to the middle classes from the beginning. Big cities like Córdoba, Rosario, Mendoza or Buenos Aires show less political culture (related to Peronism), which is a big influence. In 2011 we won the City with 35 percent of the votes, but it was a special historical moment — even Perón in 1973 lost in the district.
If you’re not elected, what will happen to you after December?
I intend to retain my seat in the Senate. Having said that, I’m a professor at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and a researcher at the Conicet think tank, I wrote a lot of books … So I don’t need a Plan B. But at the same time I pushed the law to protect glaciers, the anti-tobacco, the celiac law — I had the chance to fight for extraordinary buenosairesherald.com