Goodbye Perón

 No matter what one thinks of Javier Milei’s chainsaw austerity, or his maverick persona, there is much to celebrate in Argen­tineans deciding to give him a chance to persist in his radical free-market reforms. Maybe Donald Trump’s ‘interference’—condition­ing the $40 billion lifeline on Milei’s political survival— helped persuade voters, but the Argentinean president’s decisive victory in Sunday’s (October 26) midterm elections, with his party La Libertad Avanza winning 41 per cent of the vote and securing itself a legislative majority, is a sign that the most incorrigible votaries of leftwing populism in Latin America—Venezuela or Cuba don’t count as those aren’t democracies—are done with Perónism.

 At least for now. Milei’s vetoes have cut welfare, healthcare and education budgets, thousands have been laid off, and yet Argentineans have realised the alterna­tive is far worse. Peronism a la Kirchnerism destroyed their economy, over and over again. Milei’s policies have brought inflation down from three figures, cut the deficit, and restored in­vestor confidence. However, in doing so, he has propped up the peso, artificially over­valuing it, and next year’s $20 billion debt repayment could be his real moment of reckoning. Nevertheless, Milei can use his two re­maining presidential years to vindicate Sunday’s result and bid for a second term.

 The Epiphanies of Anthony Hopkins

When you find out why things happen, you realise life is a game. It has its epiphanies which lead to turning points. But there are no big deals. Anthony Hopkins, who turns 88 on the last day of the year, is releas­ing his memoir We Did Ok, Kid on November 4, a candid recounting of his long and in­structive life, from a working-class childhood in Wales to fame as an actor. It hasn’t been an easy life. Hopkins imbibed his father’s and grandfather’s stoicism and the bottled-up industrial worker’s alcohol­ism. It cost him a marriage and a relationship with his only child but on the night of December 29, 1975, at 11 o’clock, driving around California in a blackout, he realised he was an alcoholic. He quit. As he told the New York Times recently, he heard a voice inside say: “It’s all over. Now you can start living. And it has all been for a purpose, so don’t forget one moment of it.” Hopkins’ teachers and peers at school thought he was stupid. He told his wor­ried father, “One day I’ll show you.” Well, the teachers are all dead now, as he says. He won. Only to wonder, “I’m still here. How?”

  The Dutch Middle

The Dutch have surprised themselves, not by cutting it too thin for parliament again but by returning space to the centre. At a time when the far-right looks set to sweep Europe, especially Germany, despite the predicted troubles of Viktor Orbán in Hungary, or the French National Rally’s inability to unbox itself, or Nigel Farage’s need to wait, a smart 38-year-old, Rob Jetten, has led his centrist-liberal D66 party to share the spoils at the top with Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party. Wilders is disappointed and it would be easier for Jetten to lead a new government as other mainstream parties, like the conservative-liberal VVD, finishing a close third, would prefer working with him.