ARGENTINA-POLITICS: Honesty Can Pay-off

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Oct 27 1996 (IPS) - Politicians in Argentina – generally entangled in corruption scandals – feature low in the esteem of citizens but one woman is riding high in the popularity stakes — Sen. Graciela Fernandez Meijide, of the centre-left Solidarity Country Front.

She first burst onto the political scene when she was searching for her son, kidnapped during the military dictatorship of 1976-83 and gained her first legislative post in 1993. Today, public opinion polls indicate that she has the best image for honesty among all politicians.

The 65-years-old politician has proudly refused plastic surgery to enhance her facial features – so fashionable in this country in the last decade – and even adversaries fight to pose, smiling, beside her and to offer her a chair, as if hoping her halo of honesty will rub off on them.

In an interview with IPS, Fernandez Meijide offered her own explanation:

“In a society, submerged in a culture of eternal youth and eternal superficiality for the past ten years, where pragmatism is placed above those values that are more durable, people are pushed to look for coherence and a solid track record, ” she said. “They no longer care if the person they trust has tight skin. It is more important for them if their conduct is transparent, if the public is important enough for them not to change their private lives.”

Society wants “honesty and consistency between what is said and what is done,” she added.

Surveys conducted by the Mora y Araujo Institute, and the Centre for the Study of the New Majority, place Fernandez Meijide in first place in terms of political image.

Meanwhile, a Gallup Poll reveals that less than 10 percent of the population trusts politicians, a result that reflects the erosions of credibility among politicians, a world which is mostly masculine.

Women have gained prominence in Argentine politics in the last 10 years through a law that makes it mandatory for political parties to include women in the top slots in their lists for elected positions. In 1985, only 5.8 percent of the Congress was made up of women. Today, that percentage is 24.9 percent.

“It still remains to be seen whether this increase will modify the unpopularity of politicians, surrounded by corruption scandals and worn out over the power struggles,” commented Nora Morandini, a journalist and expert on gender issues.

For the moment, Fernandez Meijide – who still keeps the white handkerchief that symbolizes the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo who are looking for their children who disappeared during the military regime – has the respect of both allies and political opponents. She acknowledges with surprise that she is very popular among the youth.

“Young people today are tired of seeing congressional representatives who didn’t even have money to pay for a cup of coffee, now building houses that take up the entire town,” she said.

The senator believes that she stands out because society privileges the virtues that people attribute to her. “Perhaps if there wasn’t as much immorality and so much corruption, mi (political) growth would not have happened so fast,” she said.

Fernandez Meijide not only has a good image as a political leader. Many have begun to ask: why not give her the opportunity to present her candidacy for president? Yet for that to happen, many prejudices of the past would have to be overcome.

More than 50 percent of people surveyed in a study by Ricardo Rouvier said that they would vote for her for president. Among those who said that they wouldn’t vote for her (34.1 percent), the reasons they gave were ideological or rejection of her personality.

Among those who said that they wouldn’t vote for her, almost nobody dared to say that gender was the reason. In fact, Rouvier concluded that 75 percent of those surveyed said that they would consider voting for “a woman” for president.

Prejudice, however, still exists even among those who voted for Fernandez Meijide.

“She is honest, but the problem is that they are going to surround her and want to control her, like they did with Isabel Peron,” said Diana Stilman, in reference to Juan Peron’s widow, the only women president of Argentina.

Isabel – whose full name was Maria Estela Martinez de Peron – governed from 1974 until the last military coup in 1976.

Fernandez Meijide does not believe that this is the right moment to think about running for president, another gesture which places her in a favorable position but she does have some ideas about that possibility. “I think that there still is a culture that resists having women in positions of power,” she said.

The political ascendancy of Fernandez Meijide was very rapid. She obtained her first congressional seat in 1993. She was later elected Senator for the capital, with 46 percent of the vote. This year, she obtained 36 percent of the vote and won the election for a seat in the assembly that will draw up the statute for the capital.

Many analysts believe that Fernandez Meijide would have been capable of occupying an executive position, if her party had nominated her as candidate for mayor of Buenos Aires in the last elections, which took place in June.

“Our challenge now is to demonstrate that besides being good administrators and having a good track record in the legislature, we also are also capable of leadership,” said Fernandez Meijide in a recent speech to members of her party.

But for now, she herself also resisting the temptation of imagining herself as the successor to Carlos Menem in 1999.

ARGENTINA-POLITICS: Honesty Can Pay-off

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Oct 27 1996 (IPS) - Politicians in Argentina – generally entangled in corruption scandals – feature low in the esteem of citizens but one woman is riding high in the popularity stakes — Sen. Graciela Fernandez Meijide, of the centre-left Solidarity Country Front.
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