The strength of the popular opposition strategy lies in the maximal diligence of the most absolute populism, a phenomenon that, unfortunately, is spreading worldwide and influences citizens who find nothing but faults in the leaders’ management, even if this management is embellished with successes, as is the case with the Abinader administration.
Trumpism, that is, the policy based on the most absolute populism that does not bring real solutions to citizens and only benefits the privileged and the elites, has arrived in the Dominican Republic through Leonel Fernandez. In all democratic countries, a figure has emerged embodying the values represented by the former President of the United States. It’s not an ideological movement, but a way of understanding politics from anti-establishment premises. Surprisingly, this Trumpism is generally led by people, men and women, who have made their political careers or held power within this system.
However, the way Donald Trump triumphed, even after losing the 2020 elections, with the empty yet contagious rhetoric, the use of new technological models as a tool for political transmission (and not communication), and, above all, the effectiveness in the polls and popularity ratings of leaders embracing this new political model, has led many towards the “dark side of democracy,” especially those surprisingly seeking to regain power after many years in the limbo of insignificance. This is the case of Leonel Fernandez, leader of the new party Fuerza del Pueblo.
When the opposition claims to seize power through populism, it’s the best symptom that the current government is doing well. However, characters like Leonel Fernandez are very dangerous not only for the democratic system but also for the very people who acclaim him today because they have been deceived by the magical solutions proposed by Fernandez. In this time of global crisis, which also affects Dominican citizens, it is very easy to become the “Harry Potter” of politics and convince people that there’s nothing more than a magic wand to solve all their problems.
This is the root of Leonel Fernandez’s Trumpism: the “todology,” trying to convince that Abinader’s government does everything wrong and that he will do everything right because he has “magic recipes.” In different countries, we’ve already seen what happens when these Trumpists succeed in making people trust them. Brazil is a disaster, on the brink of default and with skyrocketing crime rates, that is, the opposite of what Jair Bolsonaro promised in his electoral campaign. In the United States, where Trumpism was born after Trump’s victory in 2016, almost no promise was kept, a trade war with China was provoked, a coup attempt was made, vast fortunes and multinationals benefited from irresponsible tax policies and, above all, the country is absolutely polarized and, as political science experts have pointed out, on the brink of civil war.
Is this what Leonel Fernandez intends to do in the Dominican Republic? His statements seem to indicate that his idea is to regain power at all costs by presenting “magical solutions” without any trace of the serious analysis one could expect from a man who was president for 12 years.
An example of this occurred in Puerto Plata last weekend. Leonel Fernandez unleashed his entire populist arsenal without any restraint. On one hand, he reminisced about the times he governed, attempting to assert that “any past era was better.” On the other, he used one of the arguments that Trumpists cannot set aside: the exacerbation of national identity, which brings him closer to far-right movements and parties in Europe and the United States.
“We did a lot for Puerto Plata because Puerto Plata holds a central place in the history of the Dominican Republic. Puerto Plata is the pride of Dominicans, and therefore, it must occupy that place, but to do so, governors must be committed and must know how things should be done. You can’t enter a government to improvise. Sometimes they say they have good intentions, but good intentions are not enough; you need to have good achievements for Puerto Plata and all the Dominican people,” stated Leonel.
The political analysis of this excerpt from his speech is simple: he said nothing, absolutely nothing. Empty words, yet very well placed to make sense of the most absolute void. The phrase “governors must be committed and must know how things should be done” is a real tongue-twister, not far from the Marx Brothers’ sentence “the contractor of the first part shall be considered the contractor of the first part.” Leonel said that leaders must have the knowledge of how things should be done. However, like all populists worldwide, he says what “should be done” but without providing solutions or explaining how things should be done correctly. One must believe that this is the intellectual foundation of Fuerza del Pueblo, that is, emptiness and nothingness.
Leonel, obviously, had to package his emptiness into something for people to “buy” and be enthralled by his speech and, above all, he focused on infrastructures, something that the leader of Fuerza del Pueblo knows very well, too well.
One must recall a telling fact: the central years of Leonel Fernandez’s government were framed in a global situation of economic boom. He hardly experienced a global crisis, as the main effects of the 2008 crisis were felt in the Dominican Republic in the latter years of his term, and not with the virulence suffered by other countries like the member states of the European Union or the United States.
Therefore, it is evident that referring to what was done during those years is playing with marked cards. The current Dominican president, Luis Abinader, became president of the Dominican Republic during the most challenging times of the Covid-19 pandemic, and his efforts to reverse the situation of economic paralysis have been praised by major powers in various global economic forums. To add to the difficulties, the energy crisis caused by rising fuel and oil derivatives prices has led to galloping and imported inflation that Leonel did not experience while governing.
However, the Trumpist populism of “any moment in the past was better” is used unabashedly. It is very easy to flatter people by saying what they expect to hear. What is not at all demonstrable is whether Leonel has the capacity to manage a situation like the current one globally, not just in the Dominican Republic.
On the other hand, it’s normal for Leonel to refer to infrastructures. He is a true expert in this area because many were built during his tenure. However, according to the documentation available to Diario16, the companies awarded public works contracts made financial contributions to the Leonel Fernandez Foundation and, above all, during the years he governed, Odebrecht’s works increased to levels such that the Dominican Republic became, all proportions kept, the leading country in terms of corruption involving the Brazilian construction company. All this without concluding deals with the current senator, Leonel’s right-hand man, Felix Bautista.
The leader of Fuerza del Pueblo, therefore, has no political project because he doesn’t know how to manage a country in the current situation. Moreover, he presents his arguments against Abinader as if elections were tomorrow, as if the alleged non-compliances were eternal. There are still two years of the legislature remaining, and Abinader is a president who keeps his word to the Dominican people, for him, it’s more sacred than the Scriptures themselves. It is the facts that determine the validity of Leonel’s Trumpist arguments, and for now, Fernandez has no choice but to resort to manipulation, lies, and populism, thinking that the people are foolish. Abinader, on the other hand, respects the citizens of all regions of the country, from Monte Cristi to Punta Cana, from Santo Domingo to Puerto Plata. That’s why his administration is based on a comprehensive project spanning four years. Change doesn’t happen overnight, unless you have Harry Potter’s wand, which apparently is in the hands of Leonel Fernandez.
