Juan Manuel Abal Media, who has recently taken Aníbal Fernández seat in the Senate, has celebrated the voting of a bill allowing the election of Parlasur candidates in 2015 as he did not rule either the possibility of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner running for the Mercosur’s legislative body next year.
“The (election) is very important not only because of integration, which is our case in the Mercosur (or) in the case of the European Union. The possibility of giving the population the vote to participate and decide in that area and come closer to a process of integration, it is to bring it closer to people’s everyday life. That is the significance of the matter,” Abal Medina told reporters today.
The ex cabinet chief during Cristina Kirchner’s second term in office – he was replaced in December last year by then governor of the Chaco province Jorge Capitanich -, questioned criticism by opposition lawmakers who accused the government of pushing the passing of the project to grant the President with “impunity” once she leaves office next year.
“It is huge nonsense,” he considered saying the Congress voted “democratically” on the Parlasur election which represented an “international commitment” Argentina was falling behind with.
Regarding Ms. Kirchner’s candidacy for the regional parliamentary body, the senator did not rule out the possibility considering it a “valid debate.” “But that gives as well space for some kind of political or media speculation. Honestly, I have no idea and have no way to know if the President will take some formal position once she ends her term in office,” the ex ambassador to the Mercosur assured.
“Cristina is and will continue to be our conductor and the leader of our party and political project. We can´t see the woods for the trees. The important thing is that Argentineans will have more rights and will be able to define policies in international terms, which have to do with immigration, job, and education rights,” Juan Manuel Abal Medina insisted.
“I don’t rule out nor I stop ruling out the possibility of her running because I really don’t know. A new democratic space is starting to open and the President obviously, who is the conductor of all the political space, will decide at the time if she wants to take a formal post. But thinking that a law can be made for the President to present herself (in the Parlasur elections) is nonsense,” the senator had said in another interview earlier this morning.
Source: Buenos Aires Herald