At mid-term elections, Argentina chooses between sobriety and Peronism

IF THE polls are right, Mauricio Macri, who narrowly won Argentina’s presidency against the odds two years ago, will strengthen his hand in mid-term elections on October 22nd. A good result in the ballot, in which a third of senate seats and half of those in the lower house of congress are being contested, would help him to complete economic and institutional reforms already begun. If that happens, Argentina may at last begin to recover the prosperity for which it was long ago fabled.

Success for the pragmatic, business-minded Mr Macri may also mark the political demise of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and the ruinously populist brand of Peronism that she espoused for eight years as president until 2015. Ms Fernández, who succeeded her husband, Néstor Kirchner, as president, is expected to win one of three senate seats in Buenos Aires province, by far the most populous. But if, as pollsters predict, her party fails to win the most votes in what was traditionally a Peronist stronghold, the movement, already rent with division, may look for another leader.