Once the Adorni hurricane passed, Javier Milei’s government seems to be experiencing less tense moments, hints at easing its relationship with the press, and focuses on economic management and legislative projects. However, the mystery surrounding President Milei’s presence at Casa Rosada persists through a detail: the Argentine flag that announces his presence in the building.
Limited in their movements since April 23, when amid the scandal over Adorni’s asset growth the house was closed to accredited journalists for eleven days, the press had a certain clue: seeing the small presidential flag hoisted on the mast, next to another large one, which by the way had not been raised for several weeks due to repairs during the summer. But it turns out that the Military House (which responds without hesitation to Karina Milei’s orders) and the grenadiers in charge of hoisting do not always follow the custom, and nothing is known about the presidential presence at Balcarce 50, which has been, in recent months, quite sparse, between work at the Olivos residence and various trips and management commitments.
In May, for instance, the President set foot in his office three times: on the 5th for a meeting with B’nai B’rith leaders, on the 25th (for the Te Deum), and on the 29th to receive businessmen. In June, he only did so twice: on the 9th (receiving credentials from foreign ambassadors and meeting with Argentine representatives at the Maccabiah Games, among other appointments) and on the 30th, in the latter case to swear in Diego Santilli as the new chief of staff. At Casa Rosada, they assure that times have changed, and they cite as proof that Milei was already there on the 1st of this month receiving libertarian deputies and senators, returned on Thursday for the cabinet meeting after the July 9 Te Deum, and will return this Monday to meet again with his legislators to continue advancing the organic reform project of the Central Bank. From the renewed Secretariat of Communication and Press, headed by Fabián Fernández, they have already surprised by providing more official information on presidential activity, although the reappearance of the flag remains to be seen.
Those with long memories at Balcarce 50 recall having heard the humming of some song out loud, a routine that accompanied Micaela Méndez every day in her always cheerful entry into Casa Rosada, during those days of Mauricio Macri as president. That is why it surprised more than one unsuspecting person to see the communication trainer and «passionate about the human voice,» who helped former President Mauricio Macri a lot in his speeches and public performances, last Thursday at the flag-raising ceremony led by Buenos Aires city government chief Jorge Macri in Plaza de Mayo, before participating in the Te Deum at the Metropolitan Cathedral. «She is working for Jorge,» associates of the city government acknowledged in low voices, which has already started the re-election project for 2027.
Jealous guardians of discretion, the city government avoided confirming whether the former director of communication management between 2016 and 2019, who has a long relationship with Pro leaders, is part of the staff advancing the city government chief’s candidacy.
With Diego Santilli’s arrival as chief of staff, the six secretariats that depended on his predecessor Manuel Adorni began to experience the classic war of nerves, with the logical uncertainty of not knowing what will become of their respective destinies. One of them is former Vice President and current Secretary of Environment and Tourism, Daniel Scioli, to whom Adorni, before leaving, predicted «forty more years» in libertarian management, in the months before he himself was ejected from management due to judicial investigations into his asset growth.
The truth is that Scioli, who was at Santilli’s swearing-in two weeks ago – he was seen looking for a chair in a White Hall full of officials and family members – received guarantees of his continuity. «El Colo already told him he stays,» said those close to the former vice president and ambassador to Brazil, an all-terrain figure whom Santilli knows very well and with whom they worked closely when the current chief of staff was Buenos Aires city environment minister and Scioli was Buenos Aires province governor.
Everything is being prepared in Lima for Keiko Fujimori’s inauguration as the new president of Peru. President Javier Milei has already confirmed that he will be there next Tuesday, the 28th, at the swearing-in of the daughter of the late former President Alberto Fujimori and political ally, after enthusiastically greeting her narrow electoral victory in the runoff against leftist Roberto Sánchez. But Milei will not be the only «friend» of the new president in Lima.
Pro’s International Relations Secretary, Fulvio Pompeo, is one of the few politicians who also talks by cell phone with the new president, whose party – Fuerza Popular – belongs to the Union of Latin American Parties (Upla), the same conglomerate of parties in which the party founded by Mauricio Macri is. From the city government, they say that Pro values Fujimori’s perseverance in trying to reach the presidency of her country on several occasions, and also her life story, having «been in prison (for 16 months) just for bearing a surname,» in relation to the judicial scandals and convictions that marked her father’s later years.
After spending only a few hours at the Historic House of Tucumán, President Javier Milei arrived, minutes before 11 on Thursday, at the Metropolitan Cathedral, where the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge García Cuerva, led the Te Deum of July 9. The entire cabinet and many officials decided to attend, although perhaps they did not count on the President’s punctuality and the strict rules imposed by security and Father Alejandro Russo, the host who gave the order to close the temple gates once Milei and his entourage entered.
One of those left outside, albeit for barely three minutes, was Diego Sucalesca, the executive president of PromArgentina, which depends on Karina Milei, who, in view of the television cameras stationed outside the Cathedral, knocked on the doors until he managed to enter. A journalist and personal friend of the President, with whom he shared the stage of a play at the end of the past decade, Sucalesca recently celebrated the success of Argentine Meat Week in the United States, which – his office promises – will have a second edition in September.
Para mí esto huele a farsa de mierda. La banderita de Milei es un chiste de mal gusto mientras el pueblo se pudre. Keiko y los amigos de Macri revoloteando como buitres, y Scioli buscando silla. ¡Basura! No les importa nada, solo la poltrona. Me parece un circo de la Rosada que da lástima.
che pero q quilombo para mi milei esta laburando no boludeando como los k la bandera no se iza xq el leon esta rompiendola keiko bien scioli buscando silla el pobre infeliz viva la libertad carajo los zurdos de la campora ya salen a llorar