The legislative elections in Buenos Aires City did not disappoint. The results were very clear, even at first glance. It was to be expected that the vote would clarify the balance of power between Javier Milei and Mauricio Macri. There were also hopes that Peronism would either win or perform well, given the fragmentation among the other major political blocs. In recent weeks, with turnout running low in early provincial contests, an additional question was raised: how many people would actually go and vote? A useful barometer to see whether the apathy seen in the provinces had also reached the capital.
The answer to the first question can be illustrated with the traditional theatre masks: smiling for the government, tragic for PRO. La Libertad Avanza not only crushed Macri’s forces, he won in a district where it had previously been seen as weak, overturning initial assumptions that libertarian strength lay mainly in areas beyond the capital and Buenos Aires Province.
The second issue, Peronism’s performance, delivered no surprises: it remained within the district’s historical average. More to the point, yesterday’s snapshot placed it as the second-largest force behind the ruling party – an order that is likely to be repeated at national level when this year’s voting cycle ends. If confirmed, this would signal the end of what was once Juntos por el Cambio. Its demise, however, did not come from natural causes – it was brought on by years of bad habits, neglect and being drunk on power.
The third point is turnout – the lowest in modern electoral history for Buenos Aires City. Just over 50 percent, similar to countries where voting is not compulsory. That is apathy. Thousands upon thousands of porteños turned their backs on the political elite – or “the caste,” which for many of them includes the very government that came to power vowing to eliminate it. Others may have retreated into their private interests, drawn in by the purchasing and credit opportunities that economic stabilisation is starting to offer. It’s a familiar pattern: consumerism trumps politics. And if it’s a mirage… well, at least we enjoyed the party.
With the right’s internal power struggle settled, Peronism’s fortunes defined and the low turnout recorded, the deeper question may be this: the ruling party won despite having leaders who insult, lie, show contempt and flirt with cruelty, as the runner-up rightly pointed out. Yet this government, at least for now, still guarantees the basic freedoms and rights of democracy, transparent vote counting, and the (flawed but still intact) separation of powers it inherited. This is the new democracy: procedural rather than substantive. A democracy which, amid the collapse of civility, fake news, extreme individualism and chaos – engineered by strategists and executed by influencers – finds its meaning.
We don’t know whether the old gods will return, as Max Weber bitterly wondered when he observed that capitalism had become a sport, rather than a vehicle for growth and redistribution. But unlike his pessimism, it is still too soon to declare procedural democracy a cage of iron. Perhaps, and despite the evidence, it may yet be the floor from which a democracy could be rebuilt, one that recovers some of the meaning once granted to it by political liberalism.
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