Teodoro Bronzini - The 'patriotic Fraud' Period

The 'patriotic Fraud' Period

While the military government of General José Félix Uriburu pretended to restore democracy by calling elections in 1931, the popular vote was actually outmaneuvered in several provinces by electoral fraud, specially in Buenos Aires, where the fraud reached scandalous levels. In Mar del Plata, during the first municipal election of the 30s, and despite the blatant fraud, there was socialist representation in the Deliberative Council, integrated among others by Bronzini, who was characterized by an spirit defense of the popular interests. His support to the Cooperative of Electricity and the denounce of the scandalous contract with the Compania Argentina de Electricidad (CADE) made headlines on those years, at the same time that in Buenos Aires took place the famous issue of the CHADE. During that time, known in Argentina as the década infame, electoral fraud and gerrymandering prevented Socialism to gain seats in the local Council and elsewhere. Bronzini eventually won a seat in the provincial house of representatives for the period 1933-36, where he specially wows, through the budgetary debates, for a rigorous accountability of the public funds and denounced in detail the conservative government vices and abuses, prompting a severe control of the public deficit. In 1934 he was a member of the convention for the reform of the provincial Constitution.