2023-11-20 03:42:04
Javier Milei is no longer a nightmare. Argentina wakes up to a reality supported by the strength of the votes, in an unforeseen amount. He has won the elections resoundingly. The arrival of the far-right to the Argentine presidency represents a historic turning point. Four decades after the recovery of institutions in Argentina and its promises of reparation, the South American country is entering into a political laboratory and social as unpredictable as it is feared.
The failure of politics
“With democracy you eat, you heal and you educate“, had promised Raul Alfonsin upon assuming the presidency, on December 10, 1983. The redemptive purposes were not fulfilled. The cycles of hyperinflation, debt, flight of dollars, crisis and explosion followed one another in a downward spiral. The social and economic indicators speak for themselves: more than 40% poor and a lack of horizons They created the conditions for a radical transformation that devastates the traditional political class. Peronism, in power until December 10, did its part. The fights between President Alberto Fernández and Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner They led the Government into a drift that caused enormous disaffection. Milei’s screams in the gatherings were heard as those of an indignant man who screamed for them. He lashed out at the “political caste” and he was heard as the avenger of the losers. They overlooked his aversion to social justice and his defense of the law of the jungle, telepathic communication with dogs and his status as a heavenly envoy. And that was possible because the strong discredit of the existing parties. The idea of ”change”, despite all the signs of representing a leap into the void, was stronger than anchoring oneself to an indigestible present, with food emergency situations in areas of a country that exports food and raw materials par excellence. A nobody”, a complete inexperience whom no one took seriously, built, with the invaluable help of the media and social networks, a devastating electoral force, from the marginal plain to the top. Milei channeled the anger and boredom. “Let them all go, let not one remain“, his followers sang on the triumphant night. That slogan came from the outbreak of 2001 and was against neoliberal policies. The political meaning has been reversed. Not all Milei voters are equally far-right.
Argentina had inflation of 8.3% in October. The year-on-year cumulative figure is 142.7%, according to official statistics. Every point that the cost of living rose dragged more families into poverty. In a country whose Banco Central lacks sufficient international reserves, the jumps in the price of the dollar caused systematic disruptions in the economy. They always impacted more on those who have less. A year ago, the North American currency cost 318 pesos per unit in the parallel market. Before the elections it reached 1,100 pesos and now it can rise without limit. The Government of Alberto Fernández refinanced debt with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that Macri had contracted in 2018 for 45,000 million dollars. He did it in exchange for implementing a severe adjustment that meant a huge flight of Peronist votes to the right since the 2021 parliamentary elections. At that moment, this Sunday’s electoral defeat was already announced. It was a self-fulfilling prophecy, based on the impact on pockets. In recent years, Argentines lost almost 40% of the purchasing power of their salaries. Milei’s promise that each inhabitant will become an entrepreneur has had a deep impact on social sectors that lack employment contracts, work unpaid or sporadically. Before the omens of a short-term fortune, there are the numbers. Argentina will have to pay 18 billion dollars annually in the coming years to meet its commitments to creditors. Public liabilities are 419,291 million dollars, with an increase of 12,680 million (3.14%) during the election season. On these ashes of the economy stands the figure of capitalist anarcho as if he were the last messiah to believe in. In the shanties of the city of Buenos Aires the novelty of the ballot boxes has been celebrated.
Sergio Massa had bet on the electoral miracle. He could not achieve it because the economy is in permanent ruin and, furthermore, because the traditional right, which had been relegated in the first round, was in turn decisive in this contest. He managed to transfer all of his votes in favor of the candidate who had qualified for Patricia Bullrich, its standard-bearer, as a terrorist and child murderer. But the shared fear of Peronism, branded as communist in the most unusual interpretations, outweighed the rancor and cross legal disputes. The ex-president Mauricio Macri He was the secret manager of that alliance and becomes the second architect of the feat this Sunday. He was more than just the articulator of those supports after the first turn, which he had been adverse to Milei. Macri was able to energize the deeply anti-Peronist vote. He also brought the support of an important sector of the business community. The poor join them to form a new political bloc that can be long-lasting or ephemeral. After weeks of tactical restraint and restrained manners, Milei suggested that she will make no concessions on her radical program. However, Macri is expected to have a strong influence in the Government of La Libertad Avanza, placing ministers in the far-right cabinet and designing a roadmap in Congress. The traditional right will have 94 deputies. If all the 38 LLA legislators join, they will have their own quorum. In the Senate he will be obliged to other negotiations.
The victory of denialism
Over the course of 40 years, Argentina seemed to have forged a consensus on the horror of the last military dictatorship (1976-83). Those agreements, symbolized in literature, film and music, have just been called into question. On December 10, Victoria Villarruel will become the first elected vice president known for her denial of human rights violations, considered mere excesses in the counterinsurgency fight. She did not miss the opportunity to remember him after exercising her right to vote. “It is inappropriate to paint posters in a kindergarten about the 30,000 missing and Never Again. It is like going to a cemetery and painting Barney Bear,” she said. daughter of an Army officer who participated in the repression during the seventies and he refused to swear by the Magna Carta while Alfonsín governed. Villarruel managed to once again install the theory of “the two demons” that equated in 1984 the responsibilities of the State and the insurgent groups that had been dismantled and politically defeated before the coup that overthrew Isabel Perón, on March 24, 1976. “With skill and impeccable oratory, The lawyer from a military family moved the axis of the discussion and rose as the voice of the other victims, those who died in attacks by guerrilla organizations. In this way, he opened the game by mixing the concept, putting the victims of the attacks on an equal footing with the victims of state terrorism during the civil-military dictatorship (including the appropriation of children and grandchildren), crimes that were later considered against humanity and, therefore, are imprescriptible,” said the newspaper Profile. Villarruel’s move would have fallen into a void had it not been for the profound reasons that allowed the axis of the discussions to move in this country: poverty and disenchantment. The vice president-elect will manage the areas of Defense and Security. She managed to provoke enthusiasm in hundreds of convicted repressors who are waiting to be amnestied and has a personal political project.
The arrival of the extreme right to the presidency, several analysts point out, cannot be separated from a global context. This was immediately understood by Presidents Gustavo Petro and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, of Colombia and Brazil. In Argentina, something more than a presidential replacement was at stake. The hardest conservative spectrum also knew it. Tucker Carlson, the apologist for Donald Trump, and especially Elon Musk, In this sense, they have understood the importance of the Milei phenomenon and did not hesitate to give it their blessing. The Latin American right-wing bloc and Spain did the same, in two directions. On the one hand, the former presidents, including Mariano Rajoy and José María Aznar. But it is Vox, which has La Libertad Avanza (LLA) as an interlocutor in its Madrid Forum, that greeted Milei’s triumph with the most enthusiasm, confident that the wave that he embodies will have its impact beyond Argentina. “Today a path of future and hope opens for Argentines and for all of Latin America, which we celebrate in Spain with special joy. Long live Spain, long live Argentina, live free of socialism and sovereign!” Santiago Abascal. In Chile, on the other side of the Andes mountain range, Milei’s ideological friends have drafted a Constitution in his image and likeness and intend to win the 2025 elections. The triumph of capitalist anarcho has been felt as a push towards the Palace of the Currency. Jair Bolsonaro clearly summarized the possible continental consequences of what happened: “hope shines again in South America.” But he also expressed his wish that “those good winds” reach not only Brazil but “a USA” so that honesty, progress and freedom return for all.” Until Trump He had time for exaltation. “I am very proud of you. You will completely change your country and make Argentina great again”.
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