{"id":11933,"date":"2023-12-13T21:36:19","date_gmt":"2023-12-14T02:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tempestmag.org\/v01_2020\/staging\/?p=11933"},"modified":"2024-02-07T09:20:15","modified_gmt":"2024-02-07T14:20:15","slug":"argentina-from-pink-tide-to-reactionary-wave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/2023\/12\/argentina-from-pink-tide-to-reactionary-wave\/","title":{"rendered":"Argentina: from Pink Tide to reactionary wave"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tempest:<\/span> What do newly elected President Javier Milei and his party represent politically? What is his core political base?<\/p>\n

Cele Fierro:<\/span> Milei is an expression of the far right. The bourgeoisie and the traditional political parties allowed him to grow by giving him a lot of air-time in the media and financing an important part of his campaign. At the beginning he lagged behind the more traditional forces and they tried to slow his growth in the run-up to the primary elections, but his performance caused a major crisis in Juntos por el Cambio<\/em>\/Together for Change,1

Milei\u2019s social base is still in the process of consolidating and reflects different sectors. There is a hard core of the right and middle-class sectors affected by the economic situation who oppose the social movements and are strongly influenced by the government’s economic failures. There are undoubtedly also voters from popular sectors and the working class who suffer the brutal deterioration of living conditions, inflation, low salaries, the lack of perspectives for the future, and who are furious with what Milei calls \u201cthe caste,\u201d that is, the conglomerate of politicians marked by corruption and mismanagement of public affairs. And there are sections of youth\u2014mostly middle-class men\u2014who react against the gains of the Green Wave2

It is a complex social base without a completely defined identity yet, with sectors that even position themselves against some of the measures proposed by Milei in the electoral campaign, for example in relation to public education and healthcare. An important test will come from the response to the measures he will try to carry out, as most of them are aimed squarely at his own voters.<\/p>\n

\"Photo
Argentinian President Javier Milei. Photo<\/a> by\u00a0 M\u00eddia NINJA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tempest:<\/span> Since the Argentinazo<\/em> in 2001, Argentina has been seen as a bulwark internationally against neoliberalism. It was one of the cornerstones of the so-called Pink Tide. Kirchnerism built much of its popularity through reformist policies that were limited but showed there was mass support for an agenda of structural change. In recent years there has been an electoral base for revolutionary socialist <\/a>politics of at least half a million people. Given all this, how do you account for the election of such a far right populist? How does it relate to the limits and failures of Peronism\/Kirchnerism?<\/p>\n

CF:<\/span> I think that the central aspect to understand this is the disaster caused by Peronism in its different variants during their government. They did not meet the expectations of their voters who wanted profound changes and transformations after Macri’s government. Without a doubt, the disappointment caused by a government that ended up applying very harsh austerity in agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is the main reason the far right came to power. They capitalized on the disappointment and anger against those who have a progressive or center-left discourse but governed in defense of the status quo.<\/p>\n

At the same time it is important to point out that in these conditions the political space for the Left did not dissipate. We maintained around 800,000 votes and we even managed to expand our parliamentary representation. That is to say, a new far right political actor has appeared but the anti-capitalist and socialist Left maintained our space and social insertion. These are contradictions, or rather combined processes, that can be explained by a phenomenon that is not exclusive to our country, but that we can observe globally. I am referring to the social and political polarization that translates into a development of the forces located at the poles of the ideological spectrum.<\/p>\n