The prime minister, who defines herself as an underdog, builds the false myth of a woman equal to the others. And she draws applause from those who share her privileged condition. But to help those of the people she does nothing concrete

In Santa Evita by Tomás Eloy Martínez the myth of Evita Perón is told: «In Argentina she is still the Cinderella of telenovelas, the nostalgia of having managed to be what we have never been». Evita is actually very good: as an adult, she cleverly uses her childhood as a poor child, who grew up without a father, with a mother who works hard to support her children in a small suburban house. Which does not prevent the girl, after her long anonymity, from rising to power. From that moment on, the choice of her clothes and hairstyles will occupy the front pages: Evita’s hairdresser, Julio Alcaraz, will explain how he achieved that particular shade of blonde and how he managed to transform her from a “nibbled candy” into a goddess.

Like all goddesses, she arouses love in the people: especially among women, because she claims to be one of them. In the Reason for My Life Eva writes: «I am what a woman is in any of the infinite hearths of my country». It is true that three words were missing: “I am a mother”, because she had no children. However, at the time of her engagement to Perón, she supported several of them, suffering from mutism: having little time to take care of them, she left them in an apartment, where one fine day the future President found them naked, hungry and dirty. To save the situation, they were sent to a distant kindergarten aboard an army truck, but the drivers took a wrong turn and the children were lost forever in a corn field. How unfortunate.


Of course, this imaginary Evita with offspring would have had other strings to her bow: for example, she would have winked sympathetically at the other mothers, because she too, like them, was bending over backwards to reconcile the commitments of First Lady and the time to dedicate to her daughter . And she would have helped them, certainly, precisely because she was in the same situation as them. Therefore, Mother Evita would perhaps have called a press conference to say that she had increased the nursery bonus, from 2,500 to 3,600 euros for all children, but only for 2024 and only from the second onwards, because women who have two children offered «an important contribution to society»

It matters little that in the Italian reality (because this Evita would have turned to Italy) nursery schools are still few (they should cover 45% of the territory by 2030 as required by European standards and the national average of coverage is 27, 2%). It matters little that in Italy half of the women work (female employment is the lowest in all of Europe) and that a quarter of those who work are “vulnerable” (precarious or on a voluntary part-time basis). The usual details, how unfortunate. «She IS one of us», however, not the women of the people will sigh, but those who know how to take care of a social account or who even sit in Parliament when that Evita declares that she has ended the relationship with her unpresentable partner. And they will add “well done”.


Well done she is: she is building a myth, she who is not called Evita but Giorgia, and she is doing it even with quite a bit of applause from the same women she deceives. The precious thing of the week, therefore, is The dangers of smoking in bed by another Argentinian, Mariana Enriquez: better real ghosts than those that surround us and that we believe to be real. Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina.