Political parties are not fashionable.
They are fundamental institutions of the democratic system, but political action through networks has called their role into question.
Especially for the youngest, they are an arcane, old structures for times of dizzying decisionism.
But in institutional analysis, fashion cannot be everything, precisely because it is about thinking in the long term.
This is the reason it is essential to rethink its validity.
Let's make it clear: without parties we are condemned to a weak democratic system, marked by the short term and peremptory ideas, those that are embraced with the same fervor as they are abandoned.
In order for them to once again become a catalyst for society, it is necessary for them to understand historical time without being tied to dogmatism, to help calibrate the ups and downs of a country in which we go from left to right without respite.
Argentina is experiencing times of economic liberalization (liberalism is too great for a process with features of marked intolerance).
Even so, it is striking that emphasis has not yet been placed on a central axis: economic competition.
It can be said that an updated law is missing, which is true, but there are several issues on which progress could already be made.
And this is where political parties, in the heads of their presidents, can play a fundamental role, marking a line.
Let's start with something as urgent as medicines for retirees.
It would be enough to highlight the long history of economic concentration and abuses by laboratories, which dates back to the times of President Illia, and to closer mischief with vaccines in times of the pandemic.
And highlight that it would be feasible to lower the prices paid by PAMI with action by the competition defense authority in conjunction with the relevant state agencies.
This was done in 2017, with a major impact: since we are in the state's cutback plan, we are talking about overpriced medicines for which more than 351 billion pesos are allocated.
Another case, which directly leads to a law in Congress: the Tierra del Fuego subsidy regime.
1,567 million dollars per year, 0.22 of the total budget, all State spending on science and technology and 40% of what was allocated to the Universal Child Allowance.
It is clear that the regime cannot be eliminated overnight, because there are thousands of jobs and the economy of a province at stake.
But there is always a way out: gradually move from a regime that absurdly rewards the turnover of beneficiary companies to another that stimulates innovation and added value.
A reform to the old Law No. 19,460, which includes a temporary scheme to maintain the tax credit only when value is added in the country, more equalization of internal taxes, review of profits and tariffs.
Parties must leave the “no place” that is criticism for criticism's sake, from the vain verbiage on the networks that only seeks personal representation.
They have a constitutional mission and must rise to the occasion, giving density to a currently mediocre political agenda.
They are the past, but above all they are the future.
Bernardo Saravia Frías is a lawyer, former Treasury Attorney of the Nation