The extremely difficult situation through which the historical Radical Citizens’ Union (UCR) is notable not only for the fact that it has grown from 140 national representatives at the end of the 1990s to just 6 today. This political group is showing today a deep identity crisis This is due to many external factors, but also to the mistakes of his last national leadership, headed by a leader who always showed his chameleon skin Martin Lousteau.
Radicalism seems to have disappeared from political discussion for some time. It is likely that this political force never recovered from the setback suffered by the president Fernando de la Ruawho had to resign from power in 2001 in the midst of a gigantic socio-economic and political crisis. In recent years, however, confusion has deepened over the path of this party, now 135 years old and which, with its rise to the presidency of the Nation of America, has made so many contributions to public liberties, the purity of the franchise and the incorporation of the middle class into power Hipólito Yrigoyen in 1916, without forgetting the valuable democratization process led by Raul Alfonsin.
The fact that the delegates to the national party committee elected Lousteau as their president two years ago undoubtedly contributed to this collapse. Many still wonder how it was possible that such an election fell to someone who was not just the Minister of Economic Affairs Cristina Kirchner and author of catastrophic resolution 125 against the field on mobile withholding taxes on agricultural exports was never seen as radical. Later, Lousteau was the protagonist of a historic insult to the then president Mauricio Macriwhen he suddenly resigned from his position as ambassador to the United States USAshortly before a presidential trip to this country. His last days as a national legislator of the UCR were no less regrettable: he was disavowed by his colleagues in the Senate and even created a bloc in the Chamber of Deputies with his internal seal, in which not even legislators of the party he headed were represented.
Radicalism needs a serious debate to advance in the construction of a modern proposal
Lousteau’s assumption of the presidency of the UCR was due to the influence of controversial leaders with weight in the party structure, such as: Emiliano Yacobitti And Daniel Angelici. The recent election of the young mayor of One-eyed deer, Leonel Chiarellawould represent a continuity in the line defined by the same figures.
Chiarella, at 36, is the youngest president in the history of radicalism. He has been at the helm of this mayor of the Province of Santa Fe since 2019 and was re-elected as municipal leader in 2023 with no less than 83% of the vote. His management was distinguished by a budget surplus and his leadership in innovation and technology use in the community. “If you don’t steal, there are enough resources,” was one of his favorite sentences.
In the current context of party fragmentation and general disillusionment with political forces, characterized in many cases by their irrelevance, it is difficult for the new chairman of the UCR National Committee to achieve a synthesis of the different internal sectors.
Radicalism needs a serious debate to advance the construction of a modern proposal that, without denying its historical principles, promotes freedom in the broadest sense and defines a position on the role of the state. The idea that some of its leaders have promoted, in the sense that there should be as much market as possible and as much state as necessary, could represent a line that helps to get closer to the ruling party without falling prey to it and to define a policy of alliances with other groups committed to republican ideas.
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