«I have a lump in my throat,» says Marisa with barely a thread of voice. David, her eldest son, hugs her tightly, doesn’t let go. He squeezes her as if her mother was going to collapse in her arms at any moment. The hug lasts a minute that seems eternal. Neither of them says a single word and the silence becomes thicker amid the abrasive noise of bass drums, songs and some projectiles. Sergio Massa had admitted defeat an hour earlier and for them, who followed the speech on the giant screens mounted in the vicinity of the ruling party’s bunker, everything had already been said. The language of the hug was what they – and dozens like them around them – found to explain the result, but also as a way to protect themselves against the stage of the country that was opening up to them. “It’s going to be a nightmare,” Marisa tells Page 12 when he manages to recover. “But we already lived four years of resistance with Macri, and we knew how to recover. And we also survived the 90s. And before us, there were people who fought for democracy. This time I have a feeling in my body of being in danger again, but I don’t want to, nor am I going to grant them that. Like so many other times, it’s time to start over.»says.
The corner of Corrientes and Dorrego, in Chacarita, was the epicenter of the concentration of grassroots and ordinary militants of Unión por la Patria. Thousands arrived with the idea of »putting up» with the candidate, but also of sharing their nerves during the hours of waiting. The result already seemed adverse late in the afternoon due to the information from the witness tables that some leaders allowed to leak from within «Complex C.» At night, it became the scene of a collective catharsis. «I’m devastated,» Isabel said, with her torso resting on the corner shop and surrounded by flags of Standing Neighborhoods. “I believe that people fail to understand what they voted for. I can explain the frustration about the economic situation, about inflation, that many people have wanted to change governments. What I don’t understand is why they fell for this. It’s not a joke, it’s not a Lion, it’s the extreme right, it’s dangerous. «It’s terrible because they messed with our dead, with our history.»he lamented.
Other militants, like Andrea, from the MUP (Peronist University Movement), tried to put aside their regret and think about what is coming. “I was not prepared for this difference, it’s the truth. But I do not believe that all those who voted for Javier Milei want to exterminate Peronism, as he himself said and Patricia Bullrich also said. There was a lot of vote against the economic situation and evidently we did something wrong these years. I think that our task from now on is to return to the idea of Massa’s campaign, which seemed very good to me and had to do with rebuild consensus. Cristina also talked about that at some point,» he reflected.
«I voted for the first time 40 years ago. I never thought I would find this,» explained Andrea, a retiree from Almagro who, she said, turned off the television when the first results were published and walked the few blocks that separate her home. bunker department. Four years ago, she had visited them to celebrate the triumph of Alberto Fernández. This time she didn’t want to be left alone. «The campaign was agony, the truth is, it was very long. After the general elections we thought we were turning it around, but obviously we did something wrong, something failed, I think we did not have a good government,» she said. «I had hope until the last minute, but it couldn’t be»he continued.
While the unions and social organizations had sounded the drums and trumpets, some of the classic songs of the human rights movement began to emerge from the columns of the university militancy. «Like the Nazis, it’s going to happen to them…» and «we are life, we are peace,» were some. The reference to the denialist discourse of the winning formula was evident. “To me (Victoria) Villarruel seems worse than Milei himself. She has the coldness of torturers,» Gustavo said without a filter, enlisted in his Peronism June 16 flag. «A country of repression, of curtailment of rights, of hatred is coming»he opined.
Lidia, 50 years old, arrived from the Obligado neighborhood of San Miguel. She is active in the Eva Perón Popular Current. “In the neighborhood we did well, but it wasn’t enough,” she said. For her, her choice was defined by «the young people.» «They did not live what we lived. The way they voted explains many things. We in the neighborhood tried to talk to them, but there was no way. Many do not know that they were able to study and have what they have for the years in which they lived. «We regained rights,» he said. «We gave everything, but it wasn’t enough,» he added.
Soledad, a labor lawyer and professor at the UBA, approached as soon as she heard the first sound of the drums. She lives a few blocks from the bunker. She also finds it difficult to speak, and she asks for hugs from her colleagues who pass by Dorrego:
«I can’t believe what’s happening either, the government we’re going to have,» he told this newspaper. For my part, I am going to continue doing what I do: defending workers, convincing everyone that the way is not Milei, it is not denialism. It is solidarity, common construction. Although my heart breaks, I will continue fighting.