The PRO is going through an unknown situation. In its informality and verticality, it is more like Peronism than the UCR. Without a centralized leadership it presents itself as a messy party. In the context of competition for the succession of the leader, no one has the last word. That is why Larreta and Bullrich, the two competing figures, can claim different ways of making decisions and settling conflicts. The tensions before the STEP work like mini explosions in the open. They are resolved provisionally, but they accumulate animosity between leaders and activists of each faction. For now, the incentives to not burn down the common camp allow the PRO to contort but not break.
As we show in “The intact dream of the center-right”, after its time in power, within the PRO there were two diagnoses of defeat and, based on them, two strategies to resume the reforms that they had not achieved if they managed to return to power. . For some, it was necessary to broaden the political base, guarantee more strength in different provinces and allied votes in Congress to make the substantive decisions sustainable. More “consensus”, in terms of Larreta. For others, the problem was not having gone faster, breaking the obstacles that were always going to arise anyway. “Come out of the closet,” according to Bullrich.
Today the “hard” strategy advances with impetus. The poor performance of the Frente de Todos makes it unlikely that anyone would defend the moderation with which the Fernández government began its journey. Nobody wants to look like a failed experiment. The rise of the extreme right is also pulling towards greater ideological clarity. The dream of a consensus government suffers in this stressed Argentina. The supporters of radicalism believe that now there is fertile ground for advancing along the path of reform. But both of them, in their untidy bid, weaken that common good that keeps them together. And they make their candidates see themselves, in the eyes of a beleaguered society, as part of the problem rather than the solution. In the midst of weariness and anti-establishment sentiment that enables the persistence of the Argentine crisis, while settling its internship, the PRO has the challenge of not being on the side of “the caste.” Something unexpected for a party born to represent “the new”.
* Mariana Gene and Gabriel Vommaro They are sociologists, authors of “The intact dream of the center-right” (XXI century).
by Mariana Gene and Gabriel Vommaro
