Argentina: a chilling maze of meanness

• Primary elections: Macri's tough defeat against Cristina Kirchner's candidate
• Argentina: Peronism beats Mauricio Macri in the elections and the peso collapses
• Analysis: Fight or agree, the dilemma of Macri and Argentina

Jorge Luis Borges defined the labyrinth as "a carved house to confuse men", and that is exactly Argentina after Sunday's elections: convoluted paths that cross without leading anywhere , but where you can stumble upon abundant meanness dose.

The labyrinth is named STEP (Open, Simultaneous and Mandatory Primary), a political spawn that no one had warned of such destructive potential: they decide nothing , they only define who will be candidates on October 27, but this time, by giving the Peronist Alberto Fernández 47% and President Mauricio Macri just 32%, generated a formidable liquidation of the power of the current government, a feeling of "liberated zone" that financial speculators took advantage of on Monday in a devastating way.

While citizens were stunned by the devaluation of 23% of the peso, the collapse of the stock market and the brutal rise in country risk , the two main protagonists of the devilish situation left by the elections did not seem to notice the seriousness of the situation: Macri blamed the Kirchnerism of the economic debacle on Monday and Fernandez was between contemptuous and unwise in some of the phrases he issued in the midst of a tangle of microphones and reporters who added anguish to the situation and took away packaging from the man who probably governs Argentina.

What are you thinking about? , They Asked. The response was inappropriate from the moment the country is living. "The truth is that I am wondering how to get to my car," said a Fernandez who says that economically "the responsibility belongs to the government" and that Macri does not need to call him. "I am not ruling, that the president put the batteries."

Macri had the option on Monday to summon the opposition and agree on a series of points to try to reassure the economy, but among his people there was a suspicion that Peronism wants to repeat the story of Raúl Alfonsín and Fernando de la Rúa , both Last non-Peronist governments of the Radical Civic Union, which did not complete their period. According to Clarín , after flying over the government on Monday morning the idea that it was convenient to agree on a transition with Peronism, one of the ministers changed the course by whatsapp.

"We have to govern until the end . To present ourselves gallantly to the elections with our ideas, regardless of algebra. Betting to win and quickly get out of the idea of ​​the irreversibility of the number. They will seek to exchange us governance for surrender. No concession to that idea. , is a false dilemma. It ends at the early departure, as happened to Alfonsin and De la Rúa. They want to see us vomiting blood . To justify in the coming months the catastrophe that they themselves will generate and to reaffirm the historical lesson that only they can rule. "

The message, which is attributed to Hernán Lombardi , former minister of De la Rúa and part of the Macri cabinet, fell deep in many. And, hours later, the theory was reinforced with the appearance of Victor Hugo Morales, that Uruguayan who moved with the story of Diego Maradona's second goal to England in Mexico 1986 and is already one of the most emphatic journalists in his support for years to Kirchnerism. In his program on the C5N channel, Morales addressed Macri with a series of dangerous rhetorical questions: "Are you going to hand over power, will you continue in these conditions? Do you realize the stropic you have generated?" .

Recover power

Beyond the atavistic passion of Peronism to regain power as it is and how much before each time he loses it, the appearance of Macri on Monday with another Peronist, his candidate for Vice President Miguel Ángel Pichetto , was disconcerting. He seemed to have dispensed with any advice from advisors and spoke from the viscera to round off a confusing, denial and unchanging message. Of course, something was very clear: the post-election financial chaos is the fault of Kirchnerism , whose probable return from December 10 the world sees with horror.

"Today we are poorer than before the STEP. I have instructed the economic team to prepare all the necessary measures to take care of all Argentines. The alternative to the government has no credibility in the world , does not have the necessary confidence so that people come to invest in the country. Kirchnerism should do that self-criticism. "

And then he left a reflection that confirms a phrase that circulated this weekend: Argentina is a country where you leave 20 days and changed everything , but you return at age 20 and nothing changed.

"On Friday we were in a situation where the dollar went down, Argentine companies were bought and inflation went down.

And today everything turns around, the country risk rises 350 points in an hour , it shows that there is a serious problem between Kirchnerism and the world. The world does not trust what it wants to do with Argentina again, "said the president, not wanting to notice that both Friday and Monday had little to do with the real economy. It was pure financial speculation with strong gains for They know how to move in those dark waters.

Macri, who lost in 22 of the 24 provinces of the country, finished off with an optimism to the amazement: " The election in October is going to be a good opportunity , the change continues, we are going to reverse this election yesterday to go to the ballot in November ". It is not what Peronism feels, whose supporters sing "we will return", in some cases with a striking aggressiveness. It happened at the airport in Buenos Aires, where Cristina from Patagonia landed: the fury of "we will return" worried many .

"Nobody remembers since, without the political protection of the fueros, the now candidate for vice president would be imprisoned. Any other common citizen, in her situation, would be. The deep dilemma is that that, today, almost nobody cares" said Clarin .

And while in some circles the theory that macroism could propose to support the third party in the elections, Roberto Lavagna , was disseminated to avoid Kirchner's return to power at all costs, from beyond the borders came a spooky moment. Jair Bolsonaro , the Brazilian president, said in an inflamed speech that if "the leftists" of Kirchnerism govern, the state of Rio Grande do Sul could be like Roraima's, but instead of being collapsed by Venezuelans, it would be Argentines " fleeing "from his country to take refuge in Brazil.

In Buenos Aires, with temperatures going down and down in the southern winter, some problems were more prosaic, such as that of a customer who wanted to buy a whiskey in the Chinese supermarket on the corner and found a resounding negative: "I don't know what price to sell it . "

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

• Argentina
• international
• America
• Mauricio Macri
• Cristina Fernández de Kirchner

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