The electoral list for the district of Buenos Aires of President Raul Alfonsin’s Radical Party, for legislative elections in the fall, will be headed by a Jew, Marcelo Stubrin, the World Jewish Congress reported.
On November 3 there will be legislative elections in Argentina to choose members for seats up for renewal in the Chamber of Deputies. These elections, taking place two years after the establishment of the present democratic regime, will be the first popularity test for the Radical Party.
The capital district of Buenos Aires is crucial for the election results. It was therefore especially significant that the government party, in choosing its list of candidates for this district, selected the Jewish member of Parliament, Stubrin, up for re-election, to head the list. He is number one on the Radical Party’s list of 13 candidates for Buenos Aires.
GOVERNMENT ENDS UNWRITTEN LAW
According to the Latin American branch of the WJC, the democratic government of Argentina put an end to the unwritten law according to which a Jew could not, under normal circumstances, reach high governmental or administrative positions.
The election of Jewish members of Parliament and the appointment of Jews to high administrative offices, particularly in the field of economics, education and sciences, gave birth to the anti-government slogan of “The Radical Synagogue.”
The government has remained unmoved by the comments that “there are too many Jews” in high offices, and the election of Stubrin as first candidate for Bueno Aires is evidence of this attitude totally independent of the anti-Semitic prejudice which prevails in certain sectors of Argentine society.
Not only have Jewish officials been maintained, but further appointments include the Secretary of Finance, Mario Broderson, as one of the main architects of the new economic policy of Alfonsin, and last week an additional high Jewish official was appointed: Marcelo Kiguel, the highest-ranking official in the agency overseeing the collection of taxes.
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