Name? Alberto Fernández
Westphalian identity? Argentine
Age? 62
Why is he in the news? Argentina’s President Alberto Fernández is currently hosting Spain’s President Pedro Sánchez to speed up the EU-Mercosur negotiations over a free trade agreement. During a press conference, Fernández stated the following in an attempt to connect with his European guests: “Mexicans emerged from Indigenous people, Brazilians emerged from the jungle but we Argentines arrived on boats. On boats from Europe.”
Why do we care? We do not care about the statement itself but care as to his intentions in making such a statement. Fernández was willing to very quickly throw his axis of good overboard when Sánchez, and with him, that sweet European money, walked around the corner.
Why should you care? Because this tells the story of a larger, lingering attitude in Latin America’s relationship with Europe; particularly the EU-Argentina relationship. Fernandez’ comments reflect the implicit bias against indigenous people that still permeates Latin societies. Rather than highlight a co-equal Argentine-European partnership, Fernandez reinforced existing stereotypes. On our how much you should care scale, this scores a 6/10.
Who else cares? Pedro Sánchez. He has been lobbying other European member states to give the green light to the Mercosur-EU deal for months now with little success. Fernandez’ recent statement is unlikely to help in these efforts. Nevertheless, Spain is taking over the European Council Presidency in 2023 and has already identified Latin America as desirable markets for expansion, making it a foreign policy priority for their term.
Any further comments? What Fernández tried to achieve through his European connection to Sánchez could have more easily been done by improving environmental standards in Argentina (and more importantly Brazil) which represent the actual obstacle to the free trade agreement Fernandez deeply desires. Instead of getting Bolsonaro on board with stronger environmental standards, all Fernández received was a scoff from Bolsonaro’s son who responded with “Argentina is a sinking ship,” to Fernández remarks.
