Dance Little Sister
What to expect after the recent falling out between Milei and vice president Villarruel?
Welcome Avatar! This week President Javier Milei revealed a political rift with vice president Victoria Villarruel, after a long series of online and offline tensions. What does this mean for the rest of the Milei government? Let’s dig in.
Just little over a year has passed since the Milei - Villarruel formula won the runoff against Massa - Rossi on November 19, 2023. Despite sharing the ballot and Milei’s running mate supporting all government initiatives in the Senate to date, vibes seem to be shifting in a different direction as of late.
After getting rid of Minister Diana Mondino because of her vote in the UN against the US embargo in Cuba — another cabinet member who has supported Milei from the start —, it seems that now the time has come to be more vocal about the performance of other officials like Villarruel.
In a press interview this week, Milei stated that:
“Villarruel has no influence in decision-making. She does not participate in cabinet meetings. She has decided not to participate in cabinet meetings for a long time. The only dialogue we maintain is what is institutionally needed to fulfill our roles.
She, in her vision, in many of the things that we do, is closer to the Red Circle, to what she calls high politics, and what we call the caste.”
It was evident from the beginning of the Milei government that the Vice President doesn’t have much influence in decision-making. Less evident was the second part of the presidential statement, which said that it was the vice president who decided not to participate in any cabinet meetings.
The second part of Milei’s comment is interesting because it allows us to contrast the presidential opinion with the gestures, attitudes and statements made publicly by the vice president since she assumed her official role.
In the Twitterverse, there have been multiple acts by Villarruel that were received with mixed emotions: some said that she had her own agenda.
Last month, after visiting Isabel Perón in Spain for the Día de la Lealtad Peronista and installing a bust in the Senate, Milei publicly distanced himself from those initiatives, stating that the Vice President was acting on her own:
“I would not have installed that bust of Isabel Perón, she did not get to that place for her intellectual or professional merits”.
Milei’s voter base appeared split between seeing an ulterior strategy by Villarruel that was more political and lost upon the die hard anti-Peronists who would like nothing better than to delete that chapter from the history books.
Personally I was in the first camp, and it seemed like a great way of highlighting a piece of history that Kirchnernism conveniently tried to forget:
Villarruel is attracting the Peronist voter who hates Kirchnerism and who has been left without candidates. This is the voter that Moreno has been trying to attract for a while. It is a brilliant move, but many hardcore antiperonists will not interpret it this way.
But besides this, what are the main differences between Milei and Villarruel that are at the core of this recent falling out, and it is fixable?
Victoria Villarruel - Differences and Importance
One of the main pillars of Villarruel’s politics has always evolved around the defense of the victims of terrorist violence in the 1970s.
This is something that Villarruel has been carrying out for decades without a political framework or party, both in national and international forums. Different Types of Condors discusses this theme in depth.
This trajectory, which projected her into the public arena through interviews and as a published author, led Milei to choose her as a political partner at the beginning of La Libertad Avanza.
It also explains her decision to incorporate Claudia Rucci, daughter of the unionist José Ignacio Rucci who was murdered by Montoneros, as secretary of human rights of the Senate that Villarruel presides.
That appointment, together with the decision to remove a bust of Néstor Kirchner from a corridor in the upper house, were the first politically charged decisions taken by Villarruel, in addition to her defence of the traditional family and her repudiation of gender ideology.
None of these stances seem to form part of the agenda of the Red Circle or the political caste, as the president claims, but rather the opposite.
As the daughter of a prestigious Malvinas soldier, Villarruel was also the prime candidate to handle the defense and security department.
Many believed that she would get that designation besides her Vice presidency, since defense and security were two of her strong points throughout the campaign. Milei also hinted at that possibility repeatedly.
For the vice president, the first breaking point between Milei and Villarruel arrived when the president-elect removed his running mate from the Security and Defense teams to place Bullrich and Luis Petri, candidates for the Casa Rosada for Juntos por el Cambio (JxC), after Bullrich had called for her voting base to support Milei in the runoff.
The Milei administration started with a more pragmatic agenda, and this is how Villarruel was assigned to only be Vice President, and not also have a Ministry under her wings — political favors had to be repaid for securing the JxC votes.
The one person taking care of the armado político and expanding the political and institutional power of Milei’s La Libertad Avanza is his younger sister, Karina Milei.
The Role of Karina Milei
When asked about what his sister means to him during an interview right after he became a politician, a teary-eyed Javier Milei responded:
“Look, you know that Moses or Moshes was a great leader, but he was not good at spreading the word. So God sent Aaron to spread the word. Well, Kari [Karina Milei] is Moses and I am Aaron. I am just a spreader of the word.”
These are heavy words, and seem to indicate that Karina Milei ultimately is the one holding the reigns of power, whereas her brother is just “spreading the word”.
Even though Karina Elizabeth Milei never appeared on any ballot, Javier Milei was determined to assign a role in the government to his sister, who has been on the frontlines with her unconditional support since the start of her brother’s political career.
On the day he took office as president, Milei appointed her Secretary General of the Presidency of the Nation. To do so, Milei had to modify a presidential decree that had been promulgated by Mauricio Macri, which prohibited the appointment of relatives in the national State.
In addition, that day — as in each of the acts since the 2021 legislative campaign in which Milei was elected as a national deputy — Karina accompanied the president on the way from Congress to the Casa Rosada, a role that was traditionally reserved for the First Lady.
Since that day, Karina has accompanied her brother across the globe, and Milei doesn’t move an inch without her emotional support.
Karina Milei is gaining influence in the field of attracting investments and promoting exports, key areas that come with the reconfiguration of the Argentine Agency for Investment and International Trade (AAICI), which will now be under her control.
In her role as secretary she will also be in charge of Marca País, which carries out the actions of disseminating the label “Argentina” at an international level and previously operated under the Ministry of Tourism.
Vicky & Karina
In the first few months of the start of this administration, Villarruel said in reference to Milei’s sister:
“I understand that there is a person who may be part of your family group who is your trusted person. I did not hire anyone from my family, but I can understand it in the case of others. When we talked about it with Javier... Javier has Karina.
She has worked on the campaign with everything she had. […] I have seen it first hand. And if I am vice president today, it is also because of Karina.
She is tough, but we get along well. We are similar in some things; and in others, not so much. In the middle is Javier, poor jamoncito.”
Villarruel had agreed to this interview after rumors from the Casa Rosada about a meeting between former president Mauricio Macri and Villarruel, which were never confirmed.
The analogy of Javier Milei as a helpless piece of ham stuck in the middle of a Villarruel / Karina Milei sandwich was always meant as a joke, but it does seem that there’s a deeper meaning to it, as we are finding out now.
When Kirchnerist senator José Mayans — a firm opponent of this government —, reminded Villarruel of her jamoncito joke a few months later, the laughter and “politicking” obscured the more important item at hand: the vote on a pension reform that Milei swiftly annulled by Executive Order afterwards.
Reflecting on Milei’s statement about the fact that Villarruel seems to be very confortable in the Red Circles of the political caste, this is probably the tip of the iceberg he was referring to.
The vice president's recent statements during the Noche de los Museos, when she referred to the Senate as the space of “high politics”, probably confirmed Milei’s view in that matter.
Another point of friction between Karina Milei and Villarruel started with a locker room chant started by Enzo Fernández about the racial composition of the French national football team, which has since gone viral.
This episode prompted a demand from Sports Sub-secretary Julio Garro, who wanted Lionel Messi to issue an official apology to France. Milei sacked Garro directly after this, stating that no government official should tell others what to say or do.
Villarruel herself responded to this episode with a viral tweet, that she has since pinned on her X profile:
“Argentina is a sovereign and free country. We never had colonies or second-class citizens. We never imposed our way of life on anyone.
But we will not tolerate them doing it to us either. Argentina was made with the sweat and courage of Indians, Europeans, Creoles and blacks like Remedios del Valle, Sergeant Cabral and Bernardo de Monteagudo.
No colonialist country will intimidate us with a stadium song or for telling the truths that they do not want to admit. Enough of pretending indignation, hypocrites. Enzo, I support you, Messi, thank you for everything! Argentines always hold their heads up high! ¡Viva la Argentinidad!”
The president’s sister, who seems to have a particular interest in the relationship with France, ran to the embassy of the European country to apologize for Villarruel’s tweet, which is still pinned up to this day.
In any case, the apology was effective because Milei kept her seat at the opening of the Olympic Games in Paris, and Macron visited Milei last week in Olivos and the Casa Rosada, and finally in Brazil during the G20 meeting.
Community Notes
The online “Forces of Heaven” community of Milei supporters confirmed that the time was ripe for Milei to distance himself of Villarruel, and started a memefest around the new “Milei - Milei” formula, in reference to Milei’s sister being a potential running mate for a future presidency instead of Villarruel in 2027.
At a press conference the next day, spokesman Manuel Adorni stated that the vice president "is part of the Government", and he tried to put Milei’s statements into perspective. He categorically rejected any request for her resignation, and even said that despite having a complex mission with a libertarian minority in the Senate, Villarruel had achieved the approval of many laws.
Minister of Interior Francos also tried to calm the waters in a press statement:
“There have been disagreements, which is normal, it is not a question that is dissimilar to what has happened on so many occasions between the president and the vice president. They have different roles.”
What about the Vice President herself? It is not clear whether Villarruel will use her X account to respond to Milei or if she will break her silence with an interview. Her closest circle has confirmed that she would like to make some statements in response to Milei’s words. But so far, crickets.
Final Thoughts
As should be clear by now, the soap opera starring Milei and Villarruel, does not only evolve around them. There are recurring characters who explain the development of the story, like Milei’s sister Karina Milei and Minister of Security Patricia Bullrich.
Even though it should not resemble a new ‘political caste’, the one person in charge of building a politically cohesive force inside La Libertad Avanza is Karina Milei. Despite the fact that she doesn’t appear in the spotlight nearly as much as other cabinet members, her role as a builder seems to be absolutely essential.
The failure to fulfil the promise of handing Victoria Villarruel the Security and Defense ministry was the first step in the distancing between Milei and his Vice President. There were multiple other moments and power games as described above, but none of those seem to be that detrimental or important to really cause a hard break up.
Vice President Villarruel has been essential for many policies in the current administration, with one of the key highlights being her role as a tiebreaker to push the Ley Bases or Omnibus Law through in the Senate.
One example of relationships ending badly was the recent exit of Minister Diana Mondino, a valuable person who did a lot for Milei’s government, only because she made one mistake. Milei’s comments about his vice president were made less than a month after letting a loyal minister like Mondino go.
Let’s hope that the current soap opera between Milei and Villarruel will not evolve into anything bigger.
It could hurt the Milei government more than necessary, since Villarruel did secure a good portion of the conservative vote — around a third of Milei’s votes. Those voters would not feel represented by Milei’s sister as a future running mate, nor by Patricia Bullrich.
See you in the Jungle, anon!
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Excellent mate 👌