By Ociel Alí López on August 17, 2023
Controversial Javier Milei, the ultra-right-winger who won Argentina primaries.
With the latest political and social events that have taken place in Argentina, the world is wondering where the country once called the ‘breadbasket of the world’ is heading.
And we are not only referring to the overwhelming advance, last Sunday, of the radical right-winger and ultra- neo liberal Javier Milei in the Open, Simultaneous and Mandatory Primary Elections (PASO), but to a set of facts that show the emergence of a new political panorama in which its hegemonic institutionality, represented by Peronism, and to a lesser extent, by the traditional right-wing, seem to be in decline.
Thus, we return, as in the first years of the 21st century, to a situation of political instability in which people are demanding radical change.
But unlike 2001, when the masses took to the streets to shout “They should all go!”, the change of direction at the ballot boxes shows that the explosive rage this time has, a political channel in the candidacy of Milei.
Jujuy as the face of deep Argentina
Meanwhile, another aspect of the country is also rising up. Since June, the popular revolts in Jujuy have shown another aesthetics, another face of what is palpitating deeply in Argentina.
To counteract a regional constitutional reform, the social organizations of Jujuy have carried out a process of indigenous led rebellion, which began in the remote province but has reached Buenos Aires by means of long marches. This explosion brings to the surface a hidden Argentina, which the rest of the world does not know.
That is why, in spite of the few images and the little disclosure about the events in Jujuy and their consequences in the capital, these acts generated much surprise, due to the fact that they were driven by a rural, indigenous and peasant communities, which reveals the background of a social situation that the world ignores, and which is far from the perceived ‘porteño argentinity’.
Crisis in Peronism
The electoral fall of Peronism, last Sunday, shows that the most established and comprehensive historical-political identity of Argentina is suffering a breakdown, not only of the movement but of the whole political institutionality, which has been shaken. And not just any old thing. Peronism did not start with Kirchnerism, but it is a movement that has occupied the nerves of Argentine politics for almost 80 years.
Peronism managed to interpret the Argentine soul for eight decades and that is what it could be losing: its capacity to be the interpreter, par excellence, of the Argentine socio-political fabric.
If in the presidential elections of October 22nd Peronism repeats its performance of this Sunday, it will no longer be able to be considered the ventriloquist of the Argentine political essence and runs the risk of not even making it to the ballot.
Although, it should be noted, if there is something that Peronism knows how to do, it is to emerge from defeat, from the catacombs, to reinvent itself and to appeal again to the popular sectors in the face of the rise of a radically right wing leadership, which will disrupt the whole system of social support that Peronism and Argentine democracy have installed in society.
Milei’s advance
What is being proposed to the country with the ‘Milei entrance’ is not so much an electoral option but a critical and radical course of very high social confrontation.
It is one thing to win elections in front of a rabid crowd and another to be able to maintain the momentum after taking over the government. Milei could succeed in stopping inflation, dollarizing the economy and applying neo liberal measures to unsettle Argentina’s currently destabilized economic system. The problem is: at what cost?
With Milei there would be an economic turnaround in favor of the wealthy classes, but in a situation where poverty would increase, production would decrease and inequality would skyrocket.
Some of the measures he says he will take, such as eliminating the Ministries of Education, Health, Culture and Labor (among others), overturning social policy, eliminating subsidies and dissolving rights, are an affront to Argentine social movements, both new and traditional. All this package of measures which, as he himself has said, is more severe than the one requested by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), will obviously bring about a very high level of conflict, reminiscent once again of the years of former President Carlos Menem (1989-1999), just before the 2001 riots.
That is to say, what the arrival of the new candidate would imply is a great “social war” and not only political – expelling “the caste” -, which will reach the deepest part of the daily fabric because there will be an economic turnaround in favor of the wealthy classes, but in a situation where poverty increases, production decreases and inequality skyrockets. This is going to heat up the streets in a situation of unparalleled crisis.
This is where the Jujuy demonstrations are showing us a path, producing a glimmer of the kind of mobilizations that could emerge in Argentina. We are no longer talking about the cacerolazo (banging of pots and pans from the balconies) of the middle class in 2001, but neither are we talking about the mobilizations of the labor movement typical of Peronist Argentina. We are talking about something new that will not necessarily be mediated by the existing political forms.
The new emerging subjectivities -which include new subjects, but also traditional ones, such as trade unions and teachers- will begin to defend their rights and the clash will be imminent if the administration of a hypothetical radical right-wing government comes up with a package that cannot be assimilated by the Argentine people.
Opportunity for Peronism
It is in this virtual situation where Peronism could reinvent itself, as it has already done on multiple occasions. But in order to do so, it needs to understand what is changing in the Argentine political essence and it will have to reinterpret the situation to redesign its proposal.
People are asking for a radical change in the midst of a brutal economic decontrol. The issue is where that change is headed.
When people realize where Milei’s policy is heading, with his economic package, we will be entering a situation where the conflict may show a definite new face of Argentina, one which we do not know yet.
Source: RT, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English