It is not the first time, nor will it probably be the last, that the mayor of the Magdalena party, the radical Gonzalo Peluso, receives strong questions for his management in the district. GRUPOLAPROVINCIA.COM told you, for example, that he criticized him for don’t talk to the neighborsfor being authoritarian and aggressive and lower the rations for school canteens.
Councilwoman Mirna Gurina (Frente de Todos) considered that these problems arise from the fact that Peluso focuses on “decorated” public works in the downtown area and, instead, leaves peripheral towns abandoned, where there are pressing problems such as the lack of doctors in health units.
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–In principle, I would like to know what balance you can make, as a local reference for the opposition, of these two terms of office of Gonzalo Peluso as head of the Executive.
We have had several surprises during the administration. It has been a management that has focused a lot on public works in Magdalena, an issue that of course is important for the residents, but what worries us is that not so much importance has been given to issues that we believe are important to change people’s lives, such as work, health, and also the need for housing. These are issues that we have dedicated ourselves with great force to trying to accompany so that they come to fruition, so that the neighbors can have access to these three issues that I think are basic, because of course having the paved street or having a ditch cordon is important for anyone, but if you don’t have a house to live in or you don’t have a doctor to see you when you go to the hospital, having or not having asphalt becomes a secondary issue. In recent months, most of the projects that have been approved by the Deliberative Council revolve around these issues: purchase of concrete, tenders to make asphalt, tenders to make the ditch, but we have worked hard on issues that It seems to me that they are decisive and we have felt support from the people. For example, in the town of Bavio, which is the largest town in the Magdalena district after the capital, which is Magdalena, unfortunately in January 2022 we had to submit a request for reports because there were no doctors in the room . People were approaching the room and there was no one to attend to them. Again we had to do it in the month of May, because there were no pediatricians. The boys and girls of the town of Bavio had no way of being cared for. And again we had to present a project of this style at the end of November, because there were no doctors to care for the neighbors. All these projects have not had support in the commissions, so we have had to present them on tables, because it is the only resource we have left. The ruling party has been somewhat cornered and has had no choice but to accompany it, because no excuse is acceptable when you have a sick son or daughter and you go to a room and there is no doctor to treat him. And the same with an adult person.
–Last year you pointed out that the link between the mayor and the local opposition was very difficult. Did this continue like this throughout the year? For what reason can there not be a fluid relationship with the communal chief?
Because any management that we do before the Province, which is a government that coincides with us as a political force and takes him a bit out of the limelight, leads him to generate a public disgrace against us, as opposition councilors, which, the truth, it seems to me that it is absolutely out of place. With the issue of the hundred houses, for example, he treated us as liars. He said that we generated expectations in people, later, to soften the term, right? But it’s the same thing, he’s saying it in other words. When we managed the hundred homes, we managed it to start a joint job that was well accepted by the official bloc within the Council. The mayor was on vacation at the time. And when he returns from his vacation, all attitudes change and this becomes a false expectation that we wanted to create among the people, when the hundred homes were confirmed by both Agustín Simone, who is the Minister of Habitat of the Province, and by Gustavo Menéndez, who is the administrator of the Housing Institute. And the only thing we received from the mayor was mistreatment and a lack of reception.
The lack of access to public information is also very worrying. We have made requests for reports on some issues that we noticed were irregular, mainly on public works, and also on many issues related to the environment, which is being dealt with in a wrong way, in my opinion, in Magdalena. The environment is being severely punished by local management. And we’ve never been given that information, and usually the requests for reports that we put forward have answers that aren’t the ones they should have. They are even laughable answers, because they do not respond to what is being asked, and if not, directly, no answer is given or no treatment is given. Having a majority in the Council also allows him to have the Council function as an office of the Executive and not as a space for debate and political construction.
–Thinking about this relationship that the mayor has with the neighbors, how do you analyze it? Is there perhaps more link with the residents of Magdalena? Does the mayor usually go to the neighborhoods, come into contact with the inhabitants, or does he stay away?
It seems to me that he has distanced himself more and more from his neighbor and is developing a management, in recent times, that is dedicated to his wishes and to what he believes is good, but not to listen. We, from the militancy, have toured the entire district. Inside Magdalena there are very worrying situations of abandonment. What I’m telling you, for example, about the Bavio ward and the lack of doctors, is one point among many. The town of Vieytes is a town where things are generally being requested and nothing arrives. There are many towns in the interior where it is not that it is impossible to be, to which public policies do not reach them, because the asphalt and the decoration policies are for the head of the party, and later, for the interior, nothing. So, it seems that his distance from people has weakened his image a bit. We will see in this election year that we are going to go through, a difficult year and a lot of work, what attitude he will take. But the important thing is that we, from the Frente de Todos, are with the neighbors both in even years and in odd years, and we cover the entire district to reach them with the tools and possibilities that we have.
–If you had to define Peluso’s management in one or two words, what would they be?
It seems to me that it is a petty management and closed to the real interests of the residents of Magdalena.
–How does the FdT prepare at the local level to return to the mayor’s office? What expectations do you have? Have you already defined pre-candidates? How is the space being prepared?
Today, we are with the priority of working to be able to achieve these issues that I mentioned to you: that people can have decent access to health, that they can access housing, that they can improve transportation in Magdalena, working on it both in the articulation between the different actors of the FdT as well as with the province of Buenos Aires. That is our priority.
And then, well, start thinking about what we are going to do electorally, but always defending a national and popular government, close, that is with the people. What I was saying to you: we don’t have to be only in odd years or two months before an election. We have to work every year, as we have been doing, and work based on our sole leader, who is Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, hoping that she guides, as she has always known how to do, with that vision she has of politics that for me It is absolutely admirable, to be able to become the government again in Magdalena and to be able to give the residents the things they need, which are basic, such as health, housing and work.
–What message do you leave for the residents of Magdalena at the beginning of 2023?
That, as always, we will be close to them. We are always open doors. Both as a councilor, that I have to be with my colleagues, and also as a political activist, always accompanying those who need it the most, always with our feet in the mud so we don’t forget where we come from. Because that’s where we came from, and management doesn’t have to cloud our vision. We always have to remember where we came from
Serious complaint against Gonzalo Peluso: “There are no doctors in the health units of Magdalena”