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This Wednesday, Marcelo Longobardi was separated from This morningthe program he hosted on Radio Rivadavia. According to the company, the decision was based on “the lack of presence” of the host in the studios and the performance of his program in terms of audience. However, in an exclusive interview with THE NATION The journalist assured that there were “external pressures”. “I became a harsh critic and that bothered me,” he said. After the debate and the impact that the news aroused in the media and on social networks, this Thursday night, Longobardi expanded his version of what happened on his YouTube channel.
“With implausible arguments, yesterday I was fired from the well-known and very prestigious Radio Rivadavia of the Argentine Republic, a historic radio station, one of the most important in the country,” the host began. And he noted: “The episode occurred in a quite brutal way, to the point that It reminded me a lot of the moment in which Cristóbal López and Cristina Kirchner agreed and executed my dismissal from Radio Diez, back in 2012 or 2013″.
“My team and I were, obviously, aware of pressure from the Government on the program. In fact, the owner of the radio told me that he had strong adverse comments from Mrs. Karina Milei regarding my program. And a large part of Argentine journalism was aware of what was happening, because it was a fairly public thing. Within the environment of journalism and politics it was well known that “There was very strong pressure to get me out of the way,” he shot, looking at the camera.
“Yesterday, in private, I heard versions from very prestigious colleagues of mine that were much worse than the ones I have,” he said. And he ironized: “I am very glad to have been at Radio Rivadavia, I had a great time, with a fantastic team that I hope one day to be able to recover. And also I am glad to have finally given satisfaction to the Argentine president, Javier Milei, after having caused him so much trouble and having made him utter so many insults throughout this year. I am glad to give him some compensation.”
In another section of his speech, Longobardi referred to the repercussions of his departure from the station. “I have received thousands of messages, both on my phones and on the radio. I am so grateful to everyone! I think I answered them all; “I didn’t sleep last night, that’s why I’m kind of tired.”
“In any case, this story It is one more anecdote in my stormy career, “which occurs in the context of a convulsion in my profession, which has been infected by a quarrelsome, rudimentary and very binary atmosphere,” he noted. And he explained: ”This came to me unexpectedly and unfortunately I am neither a party-goer nor a flock-keeper; Therefore, I have problems with that contemporary atmosphere of Argentina.”
“I want to tell you where I think the Argentine Republic is sliding,” he proposed. And then he pointed out: “As you know, President Milei has been the result of the collapse of an entire political system. He took office in a context dominated by fury, by anger. And this has fit perfectly with Javier Milei’s personality. In this context, he inherited, of course, a setback that he has managed to mitigate a lot, with some Achilles heel. Because, of course, the exchange rate trap, exchange control and of course the exchange rate delay are an Achilles heel in a country that has such a marked predisposition to coexist with the financial party.”
“Of course, I understand that public opinion supports this process of President Milei as a consequence of both the exhaustion of the above. Now, my job is not to follow surveys because perhaps deep down it is going against the polls. I am not regulated by what public opinion says. And of course I do not fit, under any point of view, into this very rudimentary and binary concept that today explains the positions in Argentina, which is that obvious phrase: ‘You see it or you don’t.’ My job is not to see it or not to see it; be on one side of Chavista radicalization or the other. My job is different. My job is, or at any rate has been for a long time, comment on the news, At the same time I have done hundreds of interviews. My job has basically been offer a point of view. And this right to give a point of view, according to the President and his bizarre and obscurantist fanatical followers, among whom are many journalists, It is a right that we have lost. We editorialists have lost the right to comment,” he stated.
“President Milei has achieved perhaps provisional success in economic matters: has begun to put Argentina into extreme radicalization, and has begun to show authoritarian, autocratic traits, quite visible. To the point that his followers celebrate him, as happened before with Cristina Kirchner, who was also celebrated for her losses,” he later shot.
And he expanded: “All this goes beyond the issue of forms, of whether Milei is more or less vulgar, more or less rude; which of course it is and its vulgarity is also celebrated. This goes further. I believe that behind this vulgarity and those forms so unbecoming of a president also hides a very autocratic, very contemptuous format, very contrary to any adverse idea, different or even nuances to his very formatted point of view. Burning democratic coexistence within a country at the altar of country risk seems dangerous to me. And that’s why I have stressed this throughout this year. And for that, President Milei has been so upset with me. And for that, What happened on the radio has happened.”
“At the same time that the president is fixing the economy and becoming more and more autocratic, rather shady issues or issues have begun to appear, and I have related them,” he said and continued his defense by listing the case of the radical former senator close to the Edgardo Kueider Government, the “Clean File” project, the situation of Andrés Vázquez, the head of the DGI who bought three properties in Miami for 2 million undeclared dollars, and what he considered “a series of unacceptable designations.”
Then he insisted on the similarities between Milei and Cristina Kirchner: “Both have tried to keep me out of work and both have been successful. They both did everything possible to ensure that I was left without a radio. Milei also says she is inspired by Julius Caesar and Cristina seems inspired by Cleopatra. Milei seems very influenced by world figures, also with very autocratic tendencies: Donald Trump; the dark Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán; the people of Vox in Spain and by many European parties that are undermining any notion of democratic coexistence. At the same time, Cristina Kirchner was also greatly influenced by the protagonists of her time: by Hugo Chávez, Nicolás Maduro, by Vladimir Putin, by the Chinese or even by the Iranians. There is a striking resemblance between them. (…) In Argentina we are seeing the slide between an extreme right-wing Chavismo and an ultra-left one. And I don’t have to adhere to one Chavismo or another.”
Finally, he gave some details about his future work: “I was about to take a few days of vacation from the radio. I’m not sure what I’m going to do now. If you can’t find me these days on YouTube it’s probably because I took a break. “These broadcasts are probably going to continue, a little more sophisticated, with a little more specific routine, and probably a summary in the morning.”
