Argentina general elections, 27 October 2019. Open Primaries 11 August

[Lumine]

So on a scale from 1 to Fernando De la Rúa, how screwed would Macri be at this point? Any chance things get better for him before the election?

[Lumine]

Oh my. And I had even started to buy into Macri's apparent optimism - as in, losing by less than five points - despite my increasing disgust at his stunning inability to move away from Peronist economics and stuff like picking a Peronist VP.

Yeah, he's absolutely done. That has to be beyond humiliating.

[Lumine]

What is peronism?

Anything you want it to be, really. I suppose you could describe it today as broad tent (personality-based) center-left to left-wing populism which retains protectionist, nationalist and corporatist views, but trying to accurately define Peronism is a futile exercise.

[Lumine]

[qu

Respecting peronism and the new government, it's true that the Kirchernist era was much more left-wing "populist" (i don't use this term very often as i don't agree as how is usually used) than before. But there was also a context in Latin America and another economic situation. Peronism is pretty "chamaleonic". After all, they almost sold the entire state in the 90's...

I think the term "populist" is a wildcard that can be used in whatever context with whatever meaning. If you ask my ooinion, I'd say that nearly all Argentinian politicians are "populist" to me including CFdK, Macri and Massa. I'd only spare the sober Hermes Binner (Swiss ancestry, I believe), Roberto Lavagna and maybe Margarita Stolbizer. On the other hand, the rightwing Peronist Carlos Menem was a very interesting character, a populist in the Berlusconi's fashion who implemented neoliberal policies on the path of the Washington consensus

Oh god, Menem! Whenever we discussed him with my friends we laughed a lot, such a weird man. I really can't think of proper words to describe him, but the Berlusconi comparison is fairly accurate.

It's impossible to translate it so it sounds as funny and outrageous as it does in Spanish, but my favorite quote from him - Wikiquote translated - is when he randomly started to talk about futuristic Argentinian space flight in a speech (and people allegedly believed him):

"...a space flight system will be leased, through which a platform that perhaps will be installed in the province of Córdoba. Those spaceships, with all current and future security measures, are going to leave the atmosphere, take off to the stratosphere, and from there choose the place where they want to go. In such a way that, in one hour and a half we can be from Argentina in Japan, Korea or any other part of the world. And of course, flights to other planets, the day we detect that on other planets there's also life"

[Lumine]

I'm aware Macri is beyond doomed, but will he even break 30% with that situation? Looks like unmitigated disaster.