HISTORY WILL BE REPEATED

In his autobiography The Moon’s a Balloon (1971), the well-remembered actor David Niven cites a 1942 conversation held with Winston Churchill at Chequers, the country home of UK prime ministers. On that occasion he asked him how he was able to foresee events the way he did, to which he received as an answer: “Young man, I study history.”

Appealing to the same criterium, and remembering the disastrous economic situation which forced president Raúl Alfonsín to advance the 1989 elections, it strikes me that if the Frente de Todos repeats or, most likely, worsens its performance in the PASO primaries in the coming November 14 elections, we will shortly afterwards see a repeat of history. Add to the economy various other factors, the main one being the parlous situation inside Frente de Todos, with different factions struggling for power to such an extent that an implosion is guaranteed there after another electoral defeat.

But don’t panic! Not only will the country survive but, better still, the demise of ‘Perokirchnerism’ will mark an end of populism and the opening of the door to decent leadership. Already today we are seeing the eruption of new, well educated and honest figures about to arrive in Congress, which add up to a few well known public and private people with very healthy backgrounds, who with capability and determination could lead us out of the jungle. Of course we are in for a very difficult period of adjustment, but I can well imagine that 2022 will go down in history books just as positively as 1880 did, because: “It’s going to be the rebirth of the Republic, darn it!”

Harry Ingham, City