The new president was an ex-prosecutor with a middling record and a trail of dubious judgments. He ran a negative campaign that emphasized the flawed personality of the opponent and masked his own poor record. He had entered politics late and risen to the middle through personal connections, then secured his party’s nomination in a coup. He was a placeholder, pushed by shadowy funders who overruled the party members. His personality was a vacuum, a negative field of charisma. He had no political skills at all, apart from a willingness to reverse his position on any policy at any moment. He would be in power for years, long enough to change the country for good — or bad.