A few minutes ago, Juntos for Change deputy Gerardo Milman published on his official Twitter account a draft resolution calling on President Alberto Fernández to identify who is the enemy to whom he intends to declare war, as well as the “speculators”.
This unusual document refers to the statements made by the president last Tuesday, “I hope that this week we can start to put in order the issue of the huge debt that we have inherited. And on Friday, the war against inflation begins in Argentina; we are going to put an end to speculators,” the president slipped while leading the opening ceremony of the renovated Tortuguitas station on the Belgrano Norte railway line, in the Buenos Aires party of the Malvinas Argentinas.
Milman's draft resolution is endorsed by Carlos Zapata, Karina Bachey and José Núñez, who are also members of Together for Change and specifically demand 6 things, namely:
1. Identify the enemy you intend to declare war against.
2. Who are the speculators they are going to “end up” with?
3. What scope is attributed to the verb “end” in this “war”.
4. Which speculators are they going to “end up” with.
5. What is its ultimate goal.
6. If, in accordance with article 99, paragraph 15, of the National Constitution, he requests the Congress of the Nation for the appropriate authorization for such a declaration.
As can be seen, the deputies took the literal character of Fernández's unfortunate words - bearing in mind that an armed conflict is taking place in Ukraine and that inflation in Argentina is not something recent, but is increasing every month - to demand that he, according to the national Constitution, define, precise and approves the presumed declaration of war.
“Inflation has become unstoppable and the government is insisting on failed receipts — price controls, export restrictions, increased withholding taxes — instead of acting on the causes of this phenomenon such as stopping money emissions and cutting public spending to eliminate the budget deficit,” we read The Milman document.
“They bare the same old ideas and they will produce the same results,” said Agustín Etchebarne, economist and managing director of the Freedom and Progress Foundation, who also pointed out that “every year they announce 'fighting inflation', with the same people and the same ideas. Einstein would say that it is one of the symptoms of insanity to do the same thing thinking that it will give you different results: the reality is that you are going to have the same results. Inflation continues to rise from 30% annual inflation to 50%. This year we are going to have inflation of at least 60% per year and it will probably rise again next year because they still have the same ideas, the same economic measures, the same price controls and the same tariff delays.”
In the same vein, economist Rodrigo Álvarez pointed out that “in terms of credibility and the ability to anchor policy and expectations, the government has very little room. There is no reason to believe that a consistent anti-inflation policy will be implemented.”
After Alberto Fernández's remarks, INDEC released the Consumer Price Index that revealed a cumulative increase of 8.8 percent in the first two months of the year, which positions the country in the fifth highest price increases in the world. “The president who came to 'fill the Argentinean fridge' only managed to empty it more and more during his term,” says Milman.
At the end of the text, the deputy appeals to the theorizations of Carl von Clausewitz in the book “Of War”, according to Milman, the president's words were not only unfortunate but also dangerous, because talking about war can lead to real physical violence, not only symbolic, “if whoever directs the country's destinies encourages the violence, nothing ends well, ever,” he says.
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