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Life after Populism
The surprising parallels between Trump’s United States and Argentina, and what they could mean for the future.
As people in the US are preparing for a tough election year in the middle of an impeachment process, here in Argentina we’re also gearing up for a heated summer, trying to make sense of the crisis around us and make predictions for an uncertain future. And some of the lessons from Argentina’s past four years might come in handy for a post-Trump era in the States.
After 12 years of uninterrupted rule by the Peronist Party, specifically its more divisive faction led by President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, it seemed Argentina was leaving its long populist legacy behind, but in extremely unfavorable conditions. Mauricio Macri, previous mayor of the city of Buenos Aires and son of a millionaire businessman, started his first term as president in December 2015 amidst a debt default, around 30% annual inflation and 30% poverty, but with an unrivaled optimism in the possibilities of his post-populist agenda.
Macri’s 2015 campaign was hopeful (to the point of looking like it was copied from Obama’s in 2008) and his plan was, to say the least, ambitious. The goal was not only to fight crime and drug cartels, reduce poverty and get the country out of the looming economic disaster…
