This decadent line, led by 'operator' Enrique Nosiglia, won the majority at the Gualeguaychu convention, despite resistance from some, like Julio Cobos and Federico Storani. This compromising line of radical ideology deepened during the Macri presidency with its policy of capitulation, debt accumulation, and capital flight, as well as during Cornejo's first governorship. Today, we witness the last act of capitulation—the alliance with Milei, marked by speculation on debt bonds, recession, a wave of corporate failures and job losses, and authoritarian rule, first by decree and then by vetoes. In the face of such a debacle, the Mendoza radicalism that survives among the ordinary people must reclaim its autonomy, doctrine, and values as a final act, and present its own candidate in the upcoming elections. This article was first published in Mendoza Today. Source Mendoza Today Claudio Bramanti. The Radical Civic Union (UCR) lost its mystique after the death of Alfonsín, who upheld its ideology. Furthermore, due to the power ambition of many of its leaders, it also lost its ideology and values through successive alliances with the right. It has been over a hundred years since the UCR came to power with Yrigoyen as a 'spirituality' and a 'national cause' against conservative fraud, after three decades of civic resistance for the democratic goal of popular suffrage. Yrigoyen stated he was not leading a party but a 'national movement' rooted in the May Revolution, with its ideas of liberty, independence, and equality. With these values, he protected national small capital, workers—especially tenant farmers—and originated the first agricultural cooperatives in Santa Fe. That president, also a philosophy professor, confronted the oil monopoly, Rockefeller's Standard Oil, and founded YPF. Alfonsín continued the radical ideology in the 80s for the cause of democracy, with the ethics of civic solidarity and governmental responsibility, and respect for the law in a society that assumed public rights and duties. Alfonsín also denounced the nascent 'financial oligarchy', stood against the illegitimate external debt inherited from the dictatorship in the face of U.S. President Restan, and called the country to a 'productive consensus' with businessmen and workers, which failed due to the opposition of the CGT of Ubaldini and the boycott of the bankers. Also due to the intervention of the Clarín corporation, which conspired against his government. After the unfortunate death of Alfonsín, most radical leaders rushed in their power race beyond the radical grassroots, led by Ernesto Sanz (who was never an Alfonsinist) and made a pact with Macri's right.
