Ecuador ends an extraordinary election period, with one of the greatest tragedies of our democratic life: the assassination of the presidential candidate. At the same time, our country does not see a way out of one of the most difficult security crises, with high rates of poverty and unemployment.

At the end of this phase, after facing a second round of voting that caused many disappointments, we should ask ourselves about the work our political class is doing and what it should be doing.

This last campaign shows us a little about the state of our politicians and politics. Citizens, candidates, parties and analysts in the hands of marketing and political communication experts, who decide what to say, how to say and how to present their product, thinking about the trends that characterize social networks, in order to satisfy the wishes of certain groups of the population. . So politicians end up becoming a product that is sold according to the trend of the week.

Politics is deeper and it is up to us citizens to recover its depth from the family space, classrooms…

Hannah Arendt asks a question more important than ever for our situation: what is the meaning of politics? In our context, it is necessary to give an answer from our reality. Arendt points out that for the ancients, this meaning was in freedom, which is in contrast to the modern meaning that lies in ensuring individual material progress. Both are noble and desirable goals. But the richness of Arendt’s answer lies in the arguments she covers, because she reminds us that politics is born only where a community exists, and that it is not just the sum of individuals, but above all the process in which they decide to be and stay together, where, as Pierre says Rosanvallon, there is an order that allows us to exist as a community, in freedom, ensuring the difference between citizens. In our current state, we should ask ourselves what unites us Ecuadorians, what is and do we want to be the order we obey? We cannot answer these questions without the values ​​and principles that guide us. It is not a technical question, but above all an existential, almost philosophical one.

Precisely in the answer to the first questions, our political class, and the last two finalists of these elections, seem incompetent, especially in the last discussion, which could have been a presentation with slides. Given our current situation, it is necessary to remind ourselves and convince ourselves of the values ​​we want to rule in our order (community), why we are together and where they want to take us, and above all where we want to go.

Although the shortcomings of the outgoing administration lead us to reduce politics to administrative technique, we cannot devote ourselves to seeking professionals with management degrees, otherwise we fall into the hands of traders. Politics is deeper and it is up to us citizens to recover its depth from the family space, classroom and public space. Politics is not only technical, it reflects on our common existence. (OR)