Argentina and Liberia recently held elections in which the losers graciously conceded defeat. In the United States, Trump is still preaching the big lie that he did not lose against Biden, and in Spain, the Spanish Right incites insurrection against the government of President Sanchez when he formed a majority government with an unlikely set of bedfellows.
Despite the example being set today by the United States, and also by the Spanish mother country, there are countries that oppose the global anti-democratic trend. Two of them held elections in the last few days. One was Argentina and the other Liberia, founded in 1847 by freed slaves from the United States.
In both cases the lesson was given by the losing candidates, Sergio Massa in Argentina and George Weah in Liberia. The general context is that it can no longer be taken for granted that politicians will accept the election results. Weah is the only African soccer player to have won the Ballon d’Or, an award now held for the umpteenth time by Lionel Messi. That was in 1995 when Weah was playing for AC Milan. In 2017, he was elected president of his country.
This week, after a very close election, Weah conceded victory to his rival. The margin of votes between the two was much smaller than that which separated Joseph Biden from Donald Trump in the last US election but, unlike Trump who still insists he was the winner, Weah did not hesitate to concede defeat.
Addressing the Nation on Monday night, he declared, “A few minutes ago I spoke to President-elect Joseph N. Boakai to congratulate him on his victory…Let us recognize that the real winner has been the people of Liberia.” Weah celebrated the fact that he had helped break “the stereotype that the peaceful transfer of power was impossible in West Africa.”
It’s not hard to think that he had in mind the United States, the country of his ancestors. It was as if he was saying to America in general, and Trump in particular, “See, we may be poor and somewhat chaotic, but we value the interests of our people over those of self-serving politicians.”
I don’t know if Massa had similar ironic sentiments when he conceded victory to Javier Milei in Argentina last Sunday. It is true that the margin of his defeat was irrefutable, but there was something commendable in the speed with which he recognized the truth. The difference between Massa and Trump and his devotees is striking when the latter continue to propagate Trump’s big lie three years later. I would like to believe that Massa was thinking about the United States, and perhaps about Spain as well.
When the vote was taken in Argentina only three days had passed since the investiture of Pedro Sánchez as president of a government that he put together on the basis of the most unlikely alliances. The immediate reaction of the Spanish Right wing was that of a sore loser. Massa, on the other hand, chose the difficult option of presenting himself as a good loser. When the moment of truth came, he behaved like an adult. If he is lucky, history will remember him most for having done that.
The Spanish Right is still there today, faithful to the manual of the infantile Donald Trump – children playing with fire. Sánchez won with trickery, yes, but following the rules of the game. Game over, it was supposed to be. But no. Not for the Right. The Popular Party and its Frankenstein offspring, Vox, neither want to believe it nor accept it. Sitting in their little highchairs, they stamp their feet, “I don’t like it, I don’t like it, I don’t like it!” And they throw their mush on the floor.
Unfortunately, the metaphor only goes so far. In real life there are more serious dangers than the hard time a baby would put mum and dad through. This week I saw live here on the outskirts of Barcelona an example of the national campaign to reject the new government: a bus on the side of which was mounted a picture of Sanchez sporting a Hitler moustache, dressed in a Nazi uniform. I read two messages, in large letters: “Sánchez dictator!” and “Sánchez traitor!”
It is obvious who are the closest to Hitler’s storm troopers of the early 1930s. These slogans invite not only hatred but violence. If one accepts the premise that “Adolf” Sanchez took power in “a coup d’etat”, as many opposition politicians keep claiming, then the logical, courageous and moral thing to do would be to resort to arms in defence of democracy. None of us foresees an uprising a la Franco in 1936, but it only takes a couple of madmen to take these messages literally for an attack to be made on Sanchez or one of his alleged “coup” accomplices.
Why are the Spanish playing with fire, while the U.S. Right wing has been talking about a possible civil war for some time now? Because they have the luxury of believing they can, as they are prosperous countries where too many take it for granted that democracy is the natural state of affairs, not something to be protected. Liberia, on the other hand, comes from a recent past of tyranny and civil war, and they have learned to value peace and democratic freedoms. In Argentina, too, it seems. Argentinians don’t have to look back too far in the past to remember a real coup d’état.
Adding irony, President-elect Milei is portrayed by several media in Spain, the United States and other countries as if he were Hitler, as if the Argentinians had taken an electoral turn towards Fascism. It is true that Milei lends himself to that caricature, but it is also true that the “enfant terrible” is learning at an accelerated pace that governing is for big people.
During the campaign, Milei was calling Pope Francis an “imbecile” and “communist”, but now he calls him “His Holiness”. This was the most eloquent sign that he understands that he has no choice but to moderate his rhetoric and behave in accordance with the venerable office he will soon occupy. He also has no choice but to place adults at his side, such as former President Macri, the flamboyant Cardinal Richelieu of Argentinian politics.
It is fashionable in the rest of the world to cry for Argentina. Well, time will tell. But today there is perhaps more reason to weep in the supposedly mature democracies of Spain and the United States.
This column appeared in Clarín, Argentina on November 26, 2023, and is translated by Kieran Tapsell.
John Carlin is a journalist, author and columnist for both English and Spanish language newspapers.
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