Gloomy Future

Macario Schettino points out that the 2009 legislature will look strikingly like that elected in 2003, which makes him less than joyful:

So then, one could expect basically the same thing that happened over the second half of the previous administration: nothing. A profound gridlock in the long-term decisions, merely waiting for the time to past, for the arrival of a presidential election that, tradition dictates, will be very different from the mid-terms. That's occurred in two previous occasions, and very probably will occur in 2012.

The important difference is that six years have passed since 2003, and in those six years has lost terrain in practically all of the economic areas. As we have commented on other occasions, the books don't balance in 2010, much less in the two following years. Which is to say, we have to confront much greater challenges now, but we opted to elect a Chamber of Deputies that will be structurally incapable of making decisions.