The inEVITAble President
The Argentine Republic is a free country. It holds free and fair elections. Moreover, during the crisis of December 2001, the Argentine people demonstrated their ability to successfully organize themselves at the grassroots level. It is all the more astonishing, then, that Argentina effectively has the same president time and again-regardless of ideological shifts or election results. And this despite the fact that the president in question has been dead for over forty years. Yet, practically every president who has followed him is compelled-whether consciously or unconsciously-to imitate this eternal president in one way or another, much like an actor stepping into a role. That eternal president of Argentina is, of course, Lieutenant General Juan Domingo Perón.
While serving as a military attaché at the Argentine embassy in Rome, the ambitious officer of Sardinian origin developed a strong affinity for Benito Mussolini. Upon returning to Argentina from Italy in 1941, he sought to win other officers over to his ideas. This led to the formation of the ‘‘Grupo de Oficiales Unidos‘‘ (United Officers‘ Group). This semi-clandestine officers' association sympathized with Italian Fascism and German National Socialism. In 1943, the group overthrew the conservative government. In the new administration, Perón became Secretary of Labour and Social Security and, from 1944, also served as Vice President. Although Argentina maintained good relations with Italy and Germany, it remained neutral. Furthermore, Perón began using his position to build a new power base of his own among the common people. From 1944 onwards, he was supported in this endeavor by his partner, María Eva Duarte. A young woman from a very humble background, she aspired to rise to the very top; she saw her relationship with Perón as the path to fulfilling all her dreams.
Moreover, the two appear to have genuinely loved each other. María Eva Duarte also persuaded her partner to shift from the far right of the political spectrum to the far left. She seemingly sensed that the Axis powers were destined to lose the war and that fascist leanings would no longer be well-received.That marked the birth of Peronism as a new, distinct political movement. Yet, the defeat of the Axis powers nearly brought about Perón's political downfall. Although Argentina declared war on the Axis powers, albeit largely symbolically, shortly before the conflict ended, the government, composed of former Axis sympathizers, was on shaky ground. On October 10, 1945, the government was overthrown, and Perón was even arrested. It was at this point that his wife’s efforts to win over segments of the labor movement paid off; mass demonstrations led to Perón’s release from prison. Immediately afterward, he married Eva, who had become popular among the people as the "Angel of the Poor" and as "Evita" and established the Labour Party as a completely new left-wing populist and syndicalist political party. The British Labour Party served as a model; at the time, it also exhibited strong syndicalist traits and had achieved a resounding election victory in Great Britain under Clement Attlee in 1945. Although all the country's established parties and traditional elites opposed him, Perón won the 1946 presidential election. In practice, however, Argentina had a dual leadership. Evita Perón wielded effectively just as much power as her husband, if not more, because Perón’s most important power base (workers, the unemployed, and the poor) revered Evita above all else. Perón succeeded in winning over a portion of his two main political rivals, the Conservatives and the social liberals. In 1947, his Workers' Party merged with two splinter groups from those rival factions to form the present-day Justicialist Party.
Evita’s early death from cancer in 1952 marked the beginning of the decline. Without his partner by his side, the president lost his political compass. The military ousted him in 1955. However, the subsequent governments were so poor and socially indifferent that many longed for the "good old days" of the dream couple, Juan and Evita Perón. The pair increasingly became legends-modern-day figures of myth and fable. While in exile, the deposed president found a new companion, María Estela Martínez Cartas. "Isabel" had been her stage name as a nightclub dancer. Perón wanted to turn her into the new Evita-"Isabelita"-but it did not work. Isabel lacked Evita’s charisma and could not relate to Evita’s left-wing populism; on the contrary, she leaned toward far-right positions. Meanwhile, the longing for Perón’s return grew ever stronger in Argentina, and his base of support widened. A left-wing terrorist wing of Peronism, the Montoneros, also emerged. The Montoneros began assassinating moderate Peronist figures, including the union leader José Ignacio Rucci, a close friend of Perón. Due to this, as well as the influence of his new wife Isabel, Perón shifted back toward the political right following his triumphant re-election in 1973. His second presidency was brief and disappointing. Argentines had projected all their hopes onto him; they had essentially wanted a savior for president, not a mortal man. He died in 1974. His wife and Vice President, Isabel Perón, became the new president. Civil war broke out in the country as various factions turned violently against one another. Isabel Perón responded with state terror, with the forced disappearance of political opponents carried out by her death squad, the Triple A.
Yet these authoritarian measures failed to restore order. The military staged a coup in 1976 and essentially continued what had already begun - only far more brutally and ruthlessly. It was not until the lost Falklands War in 1982 that the military dictatorship came to an end. The last figure to stand in opposition to Peronism was Fernando de la Rúa. Following the presidency of the neoliberal Peronist Carlos Menem, the social-liberal Fernando de la Rúa assumed the presidency in 1999 as the candidate of a left-wing coalition. Yet, he persisted with his predecessor's socially regressive austerity policies. By December 2001, the people had had enough; in a revolutionary wave of mass protests, Fernando de la Rúa was driven from the presidential palace, making his escape by helicopter. Many businesses were transitioned to worker self-management.
A new, left-wing generation of Peronists, partly influenced by the ideas of the Montoneros, assumed power. Admittedly, this new course did not lead to lasting improvement; instead, it ultimately resulted in even greater corruption, hyperinflation, and stagnation. Yet the longing for Juan and Evita Perón endured across both the political left and right. The yearning for a "strongman" and for an angelic woman who cares for the desperate, impoverished masses has become indelibly etched into the soul of the Argentine nation. Since then, anyone seeking supreme power in Argentina has effectively been compelled to emulate Juan or Evita Perón to some degree and/or to invoke their political legacy. Even Javier Gerardo Milei, President of Argentina and a Citizen of Liberland, who ostensibly seeks to overhaul everything and do things completely differently-cannot escape this dynamic. He speaks very positively of the late Peronist president Carlos Menem (who died in 2021), and his own persona as a strong, charismatic leader who fights against the established elites bears a resemblance to Juan Perón.
It is fascinating that two people who were not monarchs could leave such a lasting mark on a democratic country. How they managed to transform from mortal human beings into secular saints—figures among Argentina’s secular saints who transcend political divides, revered as idols and role models alike by factions holding radically opposing views, and even by sworn political enemies.
In Argentina, Perón is indeed inEVITAble.
