The ex-president Mauricio Macri advanced to THE NATION an excerpt from his new book, So that, which will go on sale on October 18. This is an excerpt from chapter 25, in which he traces the lines of a potential new presidency of Together for Change. Knot concepts like social change, the greening of liberal ideas, the inefficiency of the State and the speed that would have to be given to the next administration. A series of recommendations that can also be read in internal keyas a message to whoever is the chosen presidential candidate within the opposition alliance.
“Drastic decisions will have to be made. That ‘goodness’ that some pointed out during our management, is no more. Light populism is not an option”, Macri sentences at the end of the passage from his book that he released as an advance. The former president, who he would keep the unknown regarding his presidential candidacy until March or April of next year, he points out that today’s society is not the same as that of 2015, due to a greater rebellion once morest power, and due to his awareness of the inefficiency that the State had up to now.
The fragment that Macri advanced to LA NACION:
Either we are the change or we are nothing. It is much more than a phrase. It is the essence of our what for and it is also the conclusion I have reached following the long road traveled in life, the one I have tried to capture in these pages.
In December 2023, we Argentines will have elected a new government. After the resounding failure of populism, there are enormous possibilities that the next administration will fall on Together for Change. If this happens, our responsibility will be enormous, even more demanding than what we had as of December 2015. Beyond the man or woman who leads the next government, there are very important aspects that will make the new experience very different. to that of the first time of the change.
The first difference is in society. The Argentines of today are not the same as in 2015. People no longer accept being trampled on or ignored by power. Every time his freedom was threatened, he mobilized throughout the country. Given the absurd restrictions imposed during the pandemic, given the threats of expropriation, given the cases of extreme insecurity, given the arbitrary closure of schools, society has shown that it is far ahead of the majority of the political leadership. The awareness of the enormous power that citizens have has been embodied in numerous mobilizations, in participation through social networks or in denunciations of indoctrination attempts in schools and universities, along with countless other examples. It is a new society, which has found many ways to make its voice heard, some of them unknown until a few years ago.
The transformation of society in the digital age has extraordinary depth. The small cell phone that we have in our hands radically changed our behavior as citizens. It will no longer be the same to promote an agenda of radical changes in the face of a society that expresses itself independently and free from any tutelage. Listening to both sides, between the government and society, will be different.
The resurgence of the liberal ideology has been a true breath of fresh air in the face of the monopoly of the populist narrative. Issues of enormous importance on the agenda of change such as the drastic reduction of the fiscal deficit, the control by the State of public order, the cost of the energy we consume or the importance of quality public education have ceased to be monopolized by a few few.
We Argentines have finished with taboos, with what should not be said, with political correctness and with fear. The lesson has been hard. Populism brought us here with its message repeated ad nauseam, that according to which the State is the only protagonist of our social and economic life. It is not. What’s more: the State is the one that has done the most to destroy and complicate the lives of Argentines with its irresponsible, costly and inefficient policies.
This time there will be no time or political support to stay halfway. The enemies of change will use every trick at their disposal. We have suffered many of them during the years of my presidency. I have no doubt that they will buckle down to try to stop the transformative momentum in order to defend their privileges. Both the government team and the citizens committed to our why should they know that it will take a lot of courage. Resistance to change will be stiff. But our convictions must be even more so.
We cannot come to government with ideological prejudices of any kind. Drastic decisions will have to be made. That “goodness” that some pointed out during our management, is no more. Light populism is not an option.
THE NATION
