Argentina’s charismatic leader Juan Domingo Perón died almost 50 years ago, but his policies live on. He gained lasting popularity by forever jeopardizing the privileged position of Argentina among Latin American nations.
Ironically, Peronism continues to play an important role in the nation’s landscape—it is estimated that roughly 40 percent of the Argentine population feel they are Peronist.
“Peronism is part of the national DNA, it is part of Argentine identity. You cannot study Argentina without knowing that it’s a substantial part of our social, political, and economic life,” says Argentine journalist Rodolfo Muchela.
One of Perón’s lasting legacies in Argentina is the organisation of society into corporations with strong political power that only care about their own sectoral interest. Since Perón’s days, many of the nation’s corporations have been entirely dependent on the state and reject any curtailment in public outlays that may adversely affect them.
Peronism Continues to DominateAlberto Fernández, the current president of Argentina, is an avowed Peronist. On March 22, 2021, he was elected by the national congress of the Peronist Party as the party’s new chairman. He has very strong Peronist credentials, playing an important role in the government of Nestor Kirchner, who led the nation from 2003 to 2007.
Kirchner was a far-left Peronist who worked closely with other far-left presidents in Latin America, especially Lula da Silva from Brazil, Fidel Castro from Cuba, and Evo Morales from Bolivia. He established a strong political alliance with Hugo Chávez’s Venezuela.
Fernández was appointed Chief of the Cabinet of Ministers by Kirchner upon taking office on May 25, 2003. He retained the same post under Kirshner’s wife and successor, Cristina Kirshner, upon her election in 2007.
She continued the lavish social spending and nationalization policies initiated by the first Kirchner government. As a result, by early 2008, the country was facing a US$23 billion public debt burden and inflation of around 25 percent that took a major toll on the poorer components of Argentine society.
In October 2019, Alberto Fernández won the presidential election with the Peronist Party, having Ms. Kirchner as his vice president.
The Peronism Behind Economic and Social ChangePeronism still connects and integrates with a variety of social movements and organisations—from labour unions, student associations, and now even active LGBTQI+ groups.
Argentina became the first country in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage in 2010. It was the second country in the Americas to do so and the tenth in the world.
Under the Fernández administration, Argentina became one of the first countries in the world to legally recognise non-binary gender on all official documentation. On Sept. 4, 2020, Fernández signed Decree No. 721/2020, establishing that at least one percent of all public sector workers in the national government must be transgender.
On July 20, 2021, he signed another decree mandating the National Registry of Persons (RENAPER) to allow a third gender option on all national identity cards and passports.
In both economic and humanitarian terms, the “progressive” presidency of Fernández can be fairly regarded as being a complete disaster.
The country’s annual inflation rate could hit 90 percent by the end of the year—the highest level in three decades.
Argentine People Call for More of the Same PolicyHowever, the Fernández government keeps spending far more than it takes in, and the government-controlled central bank contributes to an unstoppable fiscal deficit by printing more money, which makes inflation even worse.
Thousands of protesters gathered in Buenos Aires on Aug. 17 to demand more government intervention to expand welfare policies and artificially raise salaries and provide unemployment benefits following consumer price inflation and a weakening of the national currency.
Curiously, most of these protesters were Peronists calling for more wage increases and social welfare funding to supposedly alleviate the economic crisis. Speaking to the crowd, Pablo Moyano, the head of the CGT workers’ union and himself a Peronist, demanded the Fernández government “take control of prices.”
Albert Einstein apparently said that the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result.
It wouldn’t be inappropriate to say that Argentina’s society suffers from a serious case of “collective madness.”
Be that as it may, the Argentine people should study their history better and make a conscious decision to rebuild a society based on the classical liberal values of their Founders.
As the Latin American authors of the insightful “Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiot” comment: “If every Argentine has a Perón in the depths of his soul, it must be excised, with a benign cross if possible, and if not, then with a sharp scalpel.”
Indeed, Argentina will never be a rich and prosperous country again until the ghost of Peronism is finally exorcised.