“And well, they are all Peronists,” Juan Domingo Perón always repeated sarcastically. He later recalled that Peronism was not a party but a movement. And that as a movement it had an unusual ability to adapt. Perón himself gave signs of this. The one who came to power in 1946 and distributed the postwar surpluses among the new proletariat later turned to the United States and asked for belt tightening in the face of the 1952 crisis. In exile in Spain, he fomented the armed extremism of the US “Wonderful Youth” of the Peronist left, the same ones he repressed from the far right in 1973, during his third government. His heirs embraced this ideological plasticity as a value, a necessary condition for obtaining, exercising, and maintaining power. The result of the last election last Sunday showed once again the effectiveness of this mutated DNA. Sergio Massa, minister for an economy with 140% inflation and more than 40% poverty, won the first round of voting with 36% of the vote, almost seven points ahead of his main rival, the far-right Javier Milei. Barring disaster, his chances of winning the presidency on November 19 are high.
Perón, a professional soldier and minister in a de facto government, structured what he called the Peronist doctrine around three basic principles: social justice, economic independence and political sovereignty. He also wrote what he called “the 20 truths” of Peronism, of which at least two stand out: “For a Peronist there is nothing better than another Peronist” and “First the country, then the movement, and then the men.” Among Given these general premises, the movement knew how to adapt to the times and to select for each historical moment the man who best represented it. “The adaptation of Peronism should not be interpreted as mere opportunism,” says Felipe Pigna, historian and author of the biography Evita, Reality and Myth (2013, Planeta). “He recognizes reality better than the rest of the parties because he has more contact with the people than the rest. It is on the streets, in the neighborhoods, in the unions. There is a will to act that has more to do with the general will than with the focus groups,” he explains. When it seems to be over, Peronism always returns, with its call for power intact.
Juan Domingo Perón and Eva Perón (Evita) after the general took charge of Argentina for the second time in 1952.
In the 1990s, the years of the Washington Consensus, Peronism under Carlos Menem was ultra-liberal; In the 2000s, he rode the regional progressive wave with the help of Néstor and Cristina Kirchner; In 2019, when the strength of anti-Kirchnerism predicted a major defeat, the head of the movement gave way to the moderate Alberto Fernández and won. Fernández proved to be more moderate than expected and Peronism weakened. The survival strategy seemed to have been exhausted this year due to the economic crisis and the emergence of Javier Milei, a candidate who recognized the discrediting of politics and took a chainsaw against “the caste”. Then Sergio Massa emerged from the scene, son of the liberal forge of Menemism, then left-wing Kirchnerist and later angry opponent. Massa waited patiently for his moment from his seat in Congress and, faced with the impending abyss, returned to Peronism as the only option.
Juan Domingo Perón speaks from the balcony of the Casa Rosada to his supporters who had gathered in the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires around 1950. Keystone (Getty Images)
“Plasticity” is the essence of Peronism. That is why political historians speak of different, well-differentiated stages. A first Peronism is that of Genesis, which became the banner of social justice and carried out the largest process of wealth redistribution in Argentine history. The impact was so profound that even ordinary Peronists remember this founding period as the golden era. The 1955 coup, whose success required a prior bombing of the Plaza de Mayo, initiated the period of Perón’s exile and the civil-military experiments that followed to wipe Peronism from Argentina’s political map. The military prevented the general from returning to the Casa Rosada for years, but they could not make him disappear from people’s minds.
In 1973, Perón returned to the country after 18 years in exile and began the third Peronism. Camila Perochena, historian at the University of Di Tella, explains: “The one who returns is the Perón of the Cold War, who has to deal with new actors within his movement: the armed Peronist left and the Peronist youth.” There he becomes one give a different speech than during his presidency and in exile, where he stirred up this youth.” The year 1973 is therefore a year of realignment. “The day after his arrival he says: ‘There are no new labels that represent this movement, Peronism is the 20 truths.'” Then a purge process begins against the Peronist left and people start talking about communist invaders in a language which anticipates that of the dictatorship that began in 1976.
The return to democracy in 1983 was a dark time for a party that assumed the transition would remain in its hands. But those elections were won by Raúl Alfonsín of the Unión Cívica Radical, the centuries-old party that had always been Perón’s counterweight. Then a profound inner renewal began, which ended with the triumph of Carlos Menem in 1989. Peronism experienced its fourth transformation, the most profound and, for many, the most traumatic. “Menemism means that Peronism moves further away from its ideological sources, namely the state as benefactor and businessman,” says Felipe Pigna. “Menem embraces neoliberalism and turns to it,” explains Perochena, but not only that. “He also promotes a reconciliation with the Peronist past, he embraces Admiral Isaac Rojas, the one who overthrew Perón. “He reads that this is how things were, he excuses the military, all with a speech of national unity, reconciliation and social peace.”
Carlos Menem waves at the conclusion of his 2003 presidential campaign in Buenos Aires. Portal photographer (Portal)
The Kirchner couple came to correct what many consider to be unforgivable deviations. Pigna explains that the fifth stage of Peronism “incorporates new elements on the left, such as the words democracy or human rights, which did not appear in Perón’s language.” We must not forget that, for example, the Luder-Bittel presidential formula of 1983 The dictatorship’s “self-amnesty of the military” was not in question. Kirchnerist Peronism fell into crisis after more than a decade in power. Due to the devastating effects of the economic crisis, which was due in large part to the fight between Cristina Kirchner and her dolphin Alberto Fernández, his electoral chances were minimal. But he once again knew how to interpret the atmosphere of the time.
In view of the dogmatism of a criticism-resistant current, he suggested a man as a candidate who had a vivid biography. Massa’s ideas and ideas that strict Kirchnerism considered “treason” became a value. Anthropologist Alejandro Grimson, author of What is Peronism? (2019, Siglo XXI) says that Massa managed to impose the idea that he was not the protagonist of the Fernández government’s problems. “He was not on the front line,” he says, and “he convinced society that it could do something different.” People are not voting for the current inflation, but believe that Massa can help solve the problem; vote for a promise of the future.”
Massa “represents the current political moment, with a moderate speech and more pragmatism.” But if he wants to build power, he will have to tackle a very rigid matrix inherited from Kirchnerism,” warns Perochena. First he has to beat Javier Milei in the second round on November 19th. He has a lead of almost two million votes over the Ultra candidate. The collapse of the traditional right after the defeat in the first round is also encouraging data for Massa. Former President Mauricio Macri (2015-2019), political father of Patricia Bullrich, defeated in the first round and eliminated in the last race, decided the day after the election to support Milei without nuances. The strategy exploded without consultation the opposition alliance “Together for Change,” which includes moderate parties with social democratic roots such as the radical heirs of Raúl Alfonsín. For these parties, Milei’s calls to blow everything up were a red line.
Crsitina Fernández de Kirchner opens the 2011 legislative session in Buenos Aires.Ricardo Ceppi (Getty Images)
The opposition’s disaster boosted Massa’s candidacy and Peronism, which felt hopelessly defeated just two months ago. If Massa reaches the Casa Rosada, “there will now be a necessary change in policy, but it will have to be done with support,” warns Grimson. Pigna expects a Peronism with “a certain liberalism and agreement with the market sectors”. Ultimately, the triumph of this idea will be that some market-friendly policies should go hand in hand with good social policies.” For Perochena, the ongoing transition has “diffuse boundaries.” “It is difficult to say what Massa’s identity is because it has changed along with Peronism itself. It will not be able to be redistributive because there is nothing left to distribute. And he will have to adapt with a series of orthodox measures that he will have to justify to his voters,” he says. It remains to be seen whether Massa is ultimately the father of sixth Peronism.