These are strange days at the top of power. The overwhelmed Chief of Staff wanders through the Casa Rosada, unable to exercise his role. A desperate patrol runs trying to shield him from the offensive that opponents and allies are preparing for this week in Congress. The Minister of Economy distances himself, tired of politics eclipsing the positive indicators he seeks to showcase. The other ministers feign ignorance and continue their routine as if they were not being dragged down by the most extensive and damaging crisis since they came to power.
At the top of the pyramid: bewilderment, impotence, silence. Javier Milei locked himself in Olivos and reduced public activities to a minimum in the last two weeks. Tuesday the 9th was the last time he set foot in the Casa Rosada for a series of protocol activities, and on Wednesday the 17th he received a delegation from the World Bank at the presidential residence. Only yesterday did he reappear in Rosario.
In his self-imposed seclusion, he spoke with few officials and appeared tense. Someone who knows him closely described his interaction these days as «spasmodic» and «uncomfortable.» «Javier took refuge in his privacy, retreated more out of survival instinct. It’s what he does when he has a problem and can’t find the solution,» the source described. It is unclear whether in that solitude of power, Milei reflects on possible alternatives or merely processes his anger from his «intense emotionality» (Patricia Bullrich dixit).
During that retreat, his sister Karina acted as his emissary on earth to maintain the directive that Manuel Adorni is not leaving, and that they must resist the destabilization attempt by the press and the opposition. The mission is becoming increasingly difficult for her. Absolutely all actors in the ruling party, from the entire cabinet to the deputies and senators of La Libertad Avanza (LLA), beg for this ordeal that has them paralyzed, unable to appear in the media, unable to advance the legislative agenda, and unable to set a more favorable public debate. Moreover, they feel they are consuming the social bonus that the expectation of the World Cup always grants. The collective immolation on the altar of the leader’s convictions is generating a subterranean discomfort that has no other destination than catharsis. Everyone owes their positions and seats to the same Milei. Period.
At the Casa Rosada, they view the impact of the Adorni affair from two perspectives. On one hand, the objective damage to the image of the government and Milei himself. According to their measurements, they hit bottom at the end of May, when positive perception fell to 33%, an indicator that threatened to break through the third that had always sustained support for the President for the first time. In recent weeks, that indicator recovered to 38%, showing it is a dynamic and modifiable variable. This interpretation keeps the chances of reelection next year alive.
However, there is a second, deeper reading that already yields an irreversible dynamic. The latest polls that landed in the government crudely expose that in his unrestricted defense of Adorni, Milei is finishing losing one of his main flags: the fight against the corruption of the old caste he came to subdue. «There are broken qualitative variables. The construction of Javier Milei as a different, transparent politician, clinging to his convictions, is very damaged. If our competitive advantage was being different from the political system, today no one would vote for us for that reason. This makes us much more dependent on the economy, a field in which we are evolving very well,» summarizes a figure from the space.
Against this backdrop, on Friday the first political reaction occurred since early March when the Chief of Staff’s trips became known and the storm broke. The appointment of deputy Adrián Ravier was a personal decision by Milei that the rest of the government actors learned only shortly before its release. He shares with him enthusiasm for economics and the Austrian school, although they have had strong differences in the past. Proof of that bond is that it was the President himself who asked for him to be incorporated into the Faro Foundation. Accepted by both factions of the internal dispute, his appointment as spokesperson served to calm nerves beforehand. A preview of the war that will break out the day Adorni’s successor must be defined.
One of the goals of choosing Ravier is for him to become a friendly translator of economic achievements for the public. Implicitly, it represents the admission that the government is heading toward a more single-issue narrative. The idea is that the official discourse will have more statistics and less anti-casta struggle; more investment and trade balance indicators, and less cultural battle. Just as the current cabinet has become more endogamous and homogeneous compared to the original, the libertarian discourse also aims for simplification and purification. After all, the main mandate Milei received was to improve the economy, and that will be the variable by which he will be evaluated next year.
To the dilemma that Adorni represents for the government, this week Congress will join the game of paradoxes: everyone thinks he should leave, but no one wants to appear responsible for executing him. It is like a condemned man without an executioner. Milei has already signaled that he is willing to protect him as far as he can. Those around him acknowledge that if Congress advances with a motion of censure, he prefers that the legislators bring him down rather than asking for his resignation in advance to avoid that ordeal. It would allow him to accuse the opposition and false allies of being coup-mongers and destabilizers for using, for the first time since the 1994 constitutional reform, the power to remove the Chief of Staff through legislative means.
In the ruling party blocs, especially in the Senate, they say the opposition offensive has enough numbers to topple him, so they suggest the government remove him beforehand to avoid a bloodbath. It is not the dream of their lives to have to publicly defend an Adorni who has been socially canceled. As a libertarian legislator noted, «we all want to have political existence after this episode.»
The allied governors, contacted by the desperate patrol made up of Diego Santilli and Lule Menem, ponder and give indecipherable signals. They do not want to pay the cost of being tied to Kirchnerism, but at the same time they admit there are legislative dynamics they do not control. And Kirchnerism, which together with the left is the only one convinced to move forward, has its own internal differences and does not have enough numbers for an impeachment.
This week in Congress there will be two preliminary instances, Tuesday in the Chamber of Deputies and Thursday in the Senate, where an overlap of dynamics will occur. On one hand, a regulatory discussion of Article 101 of the National Constitution will unfold over whether two-thirds of the votes are needed (48 in the Senate and 172 in the Chamber of Deputies) or if an absolute majority of the chambers (37 in the Senate and 129 in the Chamber of Deputies) suffices to proceed with the interpellation and eventual motion of censure. The ruling party will seek to impose the first interpretation, and the opposition will seek to resist with the second option.
che pero para mi este milei es un farsante se quedo sin la banderita anticasta y ahora esta todo fundido adorni les volo la jeta y el pelotudo escondido en olivos la economia es una bomba los curros de siempre vuelven menos verso y mas lucha de clases carajo firmado el zurdo
para mi milei se durmio y los zurdos lo van a liquidar la culpa no es de adorni ni la economia es la casta mafiosa que chorea desde siempre esto huele a pacto con la justicia que tambalea mamita que desastre