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Milei-Villarruel: a tense relationship that hit rock bottom with the rejection of the DNU in the Senate - Infobae
March 14, 2024
The President harshly told the vice president to allow the discussion in the Senate and finally revealed the underground conflict, where Karina's disapproval and mutual disappointments over space in the public sphere, positions and political aspirations are evident.
By Brenda Struminger
Javier Milei and Victoria Villarruel (Source)
It was early morning after the general elections and on the esplanade at the entrance to the Libertador hotel, the bunker where the libertarians half-celebrated a result that tasted like little, an advisor to Victoria Villarruel let his discomfort show in the darkness. For some time he had been noticing a growing exclusion by the leadership of Javier Milei's lawyer and running mate , and he did not understand it. In the surveys, “Vicky” measured as high as “the Lion”, and her interventions on prime time TV were a success, even if it was because of the controversy they generated. Running it was counterproductive, and yet they couldn't help it. The germ of a political dispute was brewing in the leadership of La Libertad Avanza, which would be dragged into the institutional sphere during the administration and which exploded yesterday, when the Casa Rosada glimpsed that the President's precious deregulation DNU could be about to collapse due to -according to them- of the vice president .
Despite the strenuous attempts of government spokespersons to deny it, the confrontation between Milei and Villarruel is an open secret that no one denies privately in the libertarian world. The underground fight has been going on since the campaign, when the bond was broken due to mutual disappointments and, especially, the disapproval of Karina Milei .
The leaders met in 2018 via Twitter, united by the celestial flags in the abortion debate. The likes and DMs led to personal meetings, and culminated with Milei offering the lawyer to accompany him in the duo of the incipient LLA coalition in the race for the Rivadavia seat. Now it is another legislative discussion, due to the DNU of deregulation, which led to the link hitting rock bottom and seeming irreconcilable.
The fury unleashed in the Casa Rosada by the authorization given by the president of the Senate to the treatment of the most important decree for Milei is the corollary and clear example of a long silent struggle that the libertarians tried to cover up with relative success during the first months of management . It has been dragging on since the second part of the campaign, rooted in Karina Milei's annoyance with Villarruel's supposed pretensions of greatness , who made the unforgivable mistake of raising her profile beyond what was allowed in the closed right-wing space. “Victoria was always highly valued. But she has a problem, that she does not understand what her role is,” said a close collaborator of the President.
The vote in the Senate for the DNU (Luciano González)
It is true that Villarruel has his own agenda and aspirations. From the beginning of the libertarian adventure, the lawyer, main activist of the controversial crusade for the revisionism of the last military dictatorship, appropriated the story of force in terms of human rights. At first, with strong endorsement from her leader. Then, more and more independently. And those who defend the vice president are convinced that they are excluding her because they consider her a threat .
His collaborators highlight his high self-esteem. “She had to forge a very strong character by going against the grain of the Never Again culture for so many years,” summarized a close collaborator who, like her, expected Milei to more than recognize her contribution to the campaign and felt disappointed. On the other hand, in Balcarce 50 they believe that the reward for her commitment was more than enough. “ She contributed a lot to us , without a doubt, like everyone else. But he exceeded his expectations . “He has to understand what his place is,” they insisted in the inner circle of the head of state.
The breaking point was in December, during the distribution of positions of the national State, when Milei definitively took away from Villarruel the illusions of appropriating three of the areas that he had requested, Justice, Defense and Security, for which - he said - he was gathering and forming technical teams for months. “We never promised him anything more than the vice presidency. He was wrong if he believed that he was going to keep all those places, he was selfish ,” one of the advisors who recently arrived in the public administration justified.
At that time they also pointed out that the formation of those cadres that Villarruel promised took too long. The appointment of Patricia Bullrich, Luis Petri and Mariano Cúneo Libarona in those portfolios was a stake that ended up tearing the link that united them.
One by one, how they voted to reject the DNU (Infographic: DeQuéSeTrata)
In the campaign they had also fired her, but the -then future- vice president responded with signals to stand before her political bosses. Last year, for example, she went out to march with her own logo , made up of the initial “V” of her name, without a single allusion to the brand of her coalition or to her President.
Among the reasons for the dispute , the disapproval of “the boss” and “true number one” of the Government was decisive : Milei's sister . They say that on the day of the inauguration, after the ceremony in Congress, the future secretary general made it difficult for her to access an office to settle in, rest and prepare in the Casa Rosada, where the institutional events of the historic day of which the lawyer was determined to participate. And the brief libertarian history shows that those who are pierced by Karina's censorious ray do not survive. The current Buenos Aires legislator Ramiro Marra is, perhaps, the most paradigmatic case. A leader who allocated private funds and time to the campaign for two years but was excluded from the small table just after the national victory and, although he was named presidential advisor, for now he could not regain his place.
However, the last friction was with the head of state himself, just last week, when Villarruel increased the senators' allowances. His pair of deputies, Martín Menem , who has a healthy relationship with Milei, had also done it. But the vice president resisted for several days to reverse the measure, as they had demanded from Balcarce 50, in a new manifestation of the autonomous imprint that irritates the LLA captains.
Beyond the facts, the omissions speak for themselves. Milei has not shared a TV apartment with Villarruel for months, as happened during her proselytizing career, when she gave her prominence and appointed her as the future coordinator of the military and security areas. There are also no recent records of one of the selfies that the president usually takes with his characteristic facial gesture and thumbs up. Instead, he constantly waters his relationship with advisor Santiago Caputo, Minister Guillermo Francos and, increasingly, with one of Karina's favorite officials, spokesperson Manuel Adorni , with whom he published an image together this morning for no apparent reason. shortly before the press conference he leads every morning.
Karina Milei and Manuel Adorni (Gustavo Gavotti)
At today's press conference, on the instructions of the President, the spokesperson surprised with a resounding denial about the internal matter , despite the fact that just the night before, the X account of the virtual “Office of the President” had released a very harsh against Villarruel, taking care to name her. Adorni, on the contrary, is blessed by the approval of Karina Milei, between whom a relationship of friendship was forged that is attested to by the relaxation outings that they participated in together at recitals and sporting events.
In the Senate they perceived Adorni's tone as a sign of certain intentions to "lower the foam" on the part of the Casa Rosada. “There is no such thing as, three months into the government, the vice president breaking. It is not the intention, far from it. Conspiracy theories are not born from the Senate,” they said near the vice president, while she presided over the session.
And they assured that they work “for the institutions and for the President.” “We came saying that institutions have to be strong for things to activate, and we maintain it,” justified an advisor in the heat of the dispute. In the Upper House they assured that Villarruel had warned about the level of pressure coming from the allied blocs. “It is clear that Victoria would not do anything that La Rosada was not aware of.”
In parallel, beyond the bellicose bill passes, the Government also rules out the possibility of breaking relations with the vice, a scenario of chaos and destabilization that they want to avoid while they juggle the economy and the adjustment and try to achieve consensus to get the Bases law and that the DNU is not annulled. “The relationship is exactly the same as always,” said an important presidential advisor this morning, willing to put cold feet on it.
The brewing institutional crisis could be sutured if one of the two members of the Executive leadership gave way. For now they are dedicated to calming the waters and the outcome of the nervous debate that has been going on since the morning in the Senate will probably determine the outcome.
