The result of the PASO generates the possibility of a collective reflection on the message of the polls and a debate on the future for the country and our lives and families.
The advance of the populist right is a new phenomenon in Argentina. But there are precedents that we have already seen how they worked in the United States and in Brazil.
The advance of the populist right rides on a critical interpretation of the reality that society perceives and shares. Milei speaks of “the caste” and has managed to synthesize there a reality that people perceive and anger. Since “everyone should go”, this anger was already present and at critical moments of greatest economic distress it resurfaces. Most politicians appear privileged. Although they are not the only ones, their privileges bother because they should be “public servants”. In politics and in different forces there are “parasites”, “jets” and “useless”. The candidate selection mechanisms have not collaborated in order to improve the selection system. Hyper-presidentialism emphasizes that the maximum leader of each force ends up defining the strategies and putting together lists with his most loyal followers. Those of us who are critical from inside and outside the institutions and have been denouncing collusions have not been heard. Politics is driving us out. Generally there are many obsequious, “raise their hands” and functional with their eternal re-elections. Many of those who remain in these positions are withdrawing from the daily life of their constituents: they do not send their children to public school, they do not use public health, they do not take public transportation. Many go to live in country houses or luxury towers. In the Scandinavian countries, a politician does not change his life when he is elected, and in some cases, like in Sweden, they have the obligation to share an apartment among several and take care of cleaning it when they come to the capital for sessions.
Already in 2021 there was an alarm that did not want to be addressed. Four million did not vote. On this occasion, the vote for Milei was a vote to punish the devices. With the millions that Larreta put in and the use of the City State apparatus, he couldn’t even beat Bullrich.
Voting for Milei should be a wake-up call for all political forces and for those of us who intend to contribute to it. You can have more or less patrimony: it is not a question of politicians being poor, but if you have to live with austerity. It is not necessary to change the habits or the style of life for having a position. You have to be accountable and show that you contributed.
In the Province of Buenos Aires, the good election of Axel Kicillof was based on the effectiveness of the management of an austere governor who reconstructed the role of the State in the province and expanded rights, and above all on the important work of closeness of the majority of the mayors.
Although this election where the majorities were grouped in thirds was foreseeable, the result of the PASO draws a scenario where there are 2 right-wing options – one more unpredictable and another that seeks to return to experiences that we already lived with De la Rúa and Macri- and just a force that defends the rights of all.
The liberal revolution proposed by Javier Milei is made of slogans with a strong emotional impact. He tells us with crystal clarity that it is an atrocity to think that “where there is a need there is a right” and that “social justice is preceded by robbery.” He questions the existence of the State and promotes an individualistic and unsupportive logic. He and his vice president have already manifested themselves as “anti-rights”, deniers of the dictatorship, repellent to the advances of the rights of the feminist movement and LGBTTIQ + -. An unpredictable danger in all aspects.
The total change proposed by Bullrich, supported by Macri, offers us a strong hand to order an insensitive adjustment, even worse than the one we are experiencing. Those of us who have memory remember the cutbacks in public education and the drop in pensions for the team that ended up leaving in the helicopter and led us to the 2001 crisis. Not to mention the setbacks during the four years of Mauricio Macri’s mandate and of the return to indebtedness that once again submits us to the IMF. It is the cronicle of a foreseen death.
The brutal dilemma of “Right or Rights” on which we will have to fight in these months does not make us forget everything that is missing and the underlying debate on a model of unfair bad development at a global and local level.
Massa has the challenge of falling in love again from politics. He is the only candidate with a probability of being elected who claims not to back down on rights. He must show honesty and austerity and promote the changes that we have been demanding to guarantee greater transparency and prevent corruption and privileges. At the same time, he has the responsibility to concretely improve the current economic situation and must listen to the middle class that is also having a hard time. He must harmonize the rights of workers who should not be faced with the needs of SMEs and whose survival is the best guarantee to continue generating genuine employment. He must attend to the substantive debate that we are raising from many environmental, youth and feminist sectors for a just and sustainable transition without squandering our common goods.
The exit is not to the right. You can only win by offering an advocacy option that moves forward and doesn’t stay in the middle.
National Deputy MC. Professor of Principles of Constitutional Law and Human Rights-UBA. President of the Citizen Association for Human Rights.
Source: Ambito
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