Maybe Mauricio Macri may have been correct in saying that those responsible for the attack against Cristina were members of “a group of crazy people”, a gang without firm connections with others of a similar mentality that did not receive direct orders from anyone, but the fact that this was the case would not be a reason of relief.
In the country there are millions of young people who live in conditions similar to those of “the cups” and, although it has not occurred to many to assassinate those politicians who believe they are guilty of the unpromising situation in which they find themselves, violence is not alien to them. Many have grown up in neighborhoods that resemble war zones and are used to neighbors dying at the hands of teenagers armed with “irons” who are willing to kill for a handful of pesos.
Be that as it may, while it has become fashionable to treat them as despicable “outcasts,” Brenda Uriarte, Fernando Sabag Montiel and their friends they were relatively entrepreneurial compared to the bulk of their peers who, as specialists in the field inform us, is equally poor and with an even more rudimentary educational level. It would not be surprising, then, if those reviled as “outcasts” soon came to constitute the majority of the country’s population, which begs the question: who marginalizes whom?
Needless to say, Argentina is far from the only country in which cultural, media and political elites they are reluctant to take seriously the existential drama of a growing proportion of their fellow citizens. It is a global phenomenon that threatens to have highly disruptive consequences in the coming years.
In the United States, the gap that has arisen between those who are content with the status quo and those who know they are abandoned to their fate was exploited, with overwhelming success, by donald trump. The hilarious real estate tycoon won the 2016 election largely thanks to the open disdain of his rival, Hillary Clintonand his progressive sympathizers by the “deplorables” who supported him, and continues to benefit from the contemptuous attitude towards them of those who dominate the most prestigious traditional media.
Despite many, the future of Argentina could depend on what the less passive “marginalized” do who, unlike those who have resigned themselves to living on handouts, will want to rebel against a social system that certainly has not favored. Until a couple of years ago, Kirchnerism – which includes individuals who claim political crimes with words that are slightly more sophisticated than those of “los copitos” – was capable of deluding them, but the increasingly widespread conviction that Cristina is indeed a pathologically self-centered “squirt” is depriving him of his power of attraction.
Will libertarians like Javier Milei fill the void left by the decline of the Kirchnerist variant of Peronist populism? It is possible, although it is hard to believe that they would be in a position to drastically reform the state to then administer it efficiently in a perhaps prolonged period in which the public sector would have to play a leading role, since without a strong government endowed with the necessary moral authority to apply measures that many would consider unpleasant, the country would run the risk of degenerating into a battlefield in which different urban tribes wage a war of all against all.
According to the polls, Cristina has the support of a minorityreduced but very intense, which in “normal” circumstances would be insufficient to allow him to govern the country manipulating as a puppet a Alberto Fernandez, but for constitutional reasons, Argentina is trapped in a time tunnel that prevents it from quickly adapting to changes in political mood. Therefore, institutional power reflects the reality of two years ago.
Those most harmed by the supposed self-induced paralysis have been, when not, the opposition leaders. Instead of having a couple of months in which to prepare to govern, as would have been the case in a country with less rigid institutional rules, they have had two years in which to do so, which, to no one’s surprise, has led them to privilege the internal ones
Even if those who assure us that it is natural for there to be bitter disputes within a democratic coalition made up of factions of very different traditions are not mistaken, it is clear that the daily brawls and devious maneuvers that keep the leaders of the various groups that coexist in Together for Change are undermining the already tenuous faith of citizens in the capacity of the political class to stop the march of the country towards a destiny that no one in their right mind wanted.
Thus, while Cristina’s star continues to fade, around which so much has revolved for several decades before a successor with similar attitudes, if there will be one, has managed to assert himself, Alberto fulfills a role that is merely decorative and the real power of the opposition, which despite well-publicized infighting would still be in a position to win a general election, is limited by the constitution, a politician who is by common consent the least trustworthy of all, has taken charge of the government.
Yes ok Serge Massa he will understand that at most he will be able to postpone for a few more months the culmination of the economic tragedy that is causing so much misery, he will hope that the show he is starring in will convince a substantial part of the population that he is the only politician with the necessary guts to do something more than blaming others for what has happened to the country.
Unlike Cristina and her henchmen and, in his recent version, Alberto, Massa has never tried to appear as a implacable enemy of the yankee “empire”. Rather, over the years he has managed to amass a remarkable number of suspected friends who occupy influential political and economic positions in American power structures.
Until quite recently, Massa’s will to ingratiate himself with such characters will have raised blisters among the most visceral pro-government militants, but it would seem that, after allowing him to take charge of managing the economy, committing himself to carrying out what was agreed with the International Monetary Fund and initiating a much more severe adjustment than those attempted by Macri, some They have decided that it would also be convenient for them to reconcile with the country that, until yesterday, they took for the ultimate symbol of universal evil.
It will be for this reason that anti-imperialists as fiery as Hugo Yasky, Roberto Baradel and Pablo Moyano visited the quintessential embassy to chat and share photos with Mark Stanley, that before dedicating himself to diplomatic tasks he had stood out as a political activist and that, according to the truck driver, “he is much more Peronist than many of us.”
At this point, the most intelligent Kirchnerists or, if you prefer, the most cynical, cannot help but understand that, although the creed they created helped them build power, it has turned out to be worse than useless when it comes to governing. It would therefore be logical that, while there is still time, they would try to replace it with something less fanciful based on the notion that, whether they understand it or not, American Democrats are ideological heirs of Juan Domingo Perón. As the adage goes, if you can’t beat them, join them.
In addition to helping them sow confusion in the opposition ranks, approaching the “empire” just when it is striving to mobilize democracies against autocracies like Russia and, above all, China, could convince it to promote large investments in Vaca Muerta, the lithium deposits and other resources that, thanks to the failed attempt to Vladimir Putin to seize Ukraine and the aggressive attitude of Xi Jinping towards Taiwan, they have become more valuable lately. Even if such a shift had no immediate concrete consequences, it could serve to lessen the pessimism that is doing so much harm by convincing many that the future may be better than the present after all.
The feeling that the local political class is more interested in defending its corporate privileges than in “solving people’s problems” is not confined to Argentina. Although it has been manifested more explicitly here than in other latitudes, the hostility towards what both leftists and rightists called “the caste” affects virtually every country in the democratic world.
But it is not only a question of the perhaps natural propensity of politicians to behave as members of a closed group, but also of the fear that, as things stand, there are no acceptable “solutions” for the ills that afflict societies. modern. It is that in many areas progress, in which spectacular technological advances are combined with globalization, is not having benign consequences. Expectations that were reasonable and realistic a couple of decades ago, when those who are already young adults were preparing for the world of work before “precariousness” messed it up, they already seem utopianwhile the many who lack academic credentials face even greater difficulties.
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