Santilli to Power: The Caste Milei Swore to Exterminate Now Runs the Cabinet

This is not a simple reshuffle. Diego Santilli’s rise to the Chief of Staff is the culmination of a radical change in profiles and styles in sensitive, high-exposure areas of the government, which had begun a week earlier with two other appointments. The need to lower tensions, mend relationships, and shed dead weight prevailed.

However, this transformation (for now, on the surface of Milei’s power) is born of necessity rather than strategy, following Manuel Adorni’s long agony over the saga of scandals, lies, and omissions he himself spawned. All aggravated by the intransigence of the President and his powerful sister, finally forced to change after nearly four months of hemorrhaging power and credibility in defense of an official who ultimately became indefensible.

The apparent depth of the resisted and delayed change of names, backgrounds, affiliations, and styles has the immediate goal of sustaining governability and the model, and the mediate purpose of carrying it competitively into the crucial presidential elections next year. A horizon that four months ago seemed clear has become more than foggy, as some of the president’s top aides acknowledge.

Santilli’s appointment means that for the first time, the chief of staff is not an original Milei loyalist, or more precisely, that seat is filled by an undisputed representative of «the caste,» whom Milei once attacked with the same string of epistemological and ethical disqualifications he aimed at other rivals. That is no small matter.

This notable mutation (or concession of strong symbolic content, however one sees it) was celebrated by those in the ruling party who prioritize a sense of reality over fanaticism or submission, and who suffered from Adorni’s functional survival, even if they dared not say so publicly, let alone in group meetings in the presence of the ruling siblings.

In that circle, especially, is the top economic team, which has a long-standing relationship with Santilli, tired of answering questions from multilateral organization officials, bankers, and investors about political sustainability, affected by the succession of scandals and Milei’s protection of his now-former chief of staff. And even more weary because they felt that what could be considered their achievements in recent months were overshadowed by the bizarre and endless exploits of the recently resigned official.

Also, governors and leaders of political forces that have served as (poorly paid) allies of Milei’s movement cautiously celebrated, mostly in private, the rise of the former interior minister, with whom they have had endless exchanges of opinions, favors, and promises not always kept. Santilli is the antithesis of his predecessor and also of the President’s style and background. His appointment once again demonstrates that necessity and scarcity of resources have the face of a heretic.

The new chief of staff is a politician by birth (or «caste»), with vast experience both on the surface and in the deepest depths of public service, a born negotiator who wields charm as naturally as professionalism. With friends, strangers, adversaries, and even enemies. Willing not to quarrel with anyone and to please as many as possible.

That is what he has been doing since he joined the government on November 11 last year, to emerge unscathed from the fierce internal dispute between Karimenemists and Santicaputists. He quickly took shelter under the wing of the already dominant Karina Milei, who was key to his rise, but always maintained good relations with Santiago Caputo, even during his declining phase. The red surfboard has dodged the bites of sharks from both warring Milei factions and thus reached the beach of the Chief of Staff. There, now, he will be much more exposed, with a power whose volume is a great unknown.

Nevertheless, in some circles, such as his former Pro colleagues, where he is best known, ambiguous feelings prevailed, ranging from sincere recognition to uncertainty and concern. Each has a significant share of arguments to explain the diversity of their emotions. Although satisfaction at Adorni’s removal predominated—whom the space’s founder, Mauricio Macri, had vetoed unsuccessfully from the moment he learned of his appointment eight months ago.

Macri acknowledges Santilli’s political virtues and personal attributes to exercise them, but he always believed he had reasons for distrust that were never clarified. During Macri’s administration, the now coordinating minister was subject to surveillance, which the top Macri government attributed to freelance spies, an explanation Santilli publicly accepted but never digested.

Fear of co-optation, that the survival of the yellow submarine might be definitively jeopardized, is palpable in Macri’s camp, although its top leaders disguise it or cast doubt on the margin of maneuver that Javier and Karina Milei will give him.

Fear, caution, and hope are equally logical. The President has vented anger against Macri’s camp in recent hours, believing it was, along with the press, a key actor in forcing him to finally part with his friend and chief of staff. The vengeful mood is running high.

On the yellow side, aware of this increased rancor in recent days, they doubt the depth of the change that the new names and styles would bring. «The Mileis’ tendency toward self-destruction has been so predominant lately that it’s hard to imagine they will change. Now they’ve stopped the bleeding, but the damage is done, including to their own authority and decision-making capacity by supporting Adorni and finally admitting they did so not by their own choice, but due to outside pressure,» say top Macri officials.

Beyond these fights and distrust among cousins in the political spectrum, it is a fact that Santilli’s appointment, even if made out of necessity and lack of alternatives from pure Mileiism, expresses significant de facto changes.

The elevation of the former interior minister should be seen in the context of the two appointments that preceded his and occurred during the previous week in what was the jurisdiction of the disgraced former chief of staff.

The appointment of economist and former deputy Adrián Ravier as presidential spokesperson and the subsequent appointment of Fabián Fernández as media secretary now, with the arrival of El Colo, complete an attempt at détente and a change of direction in the ruling party’s relationship with politics and the media, which Adorni had not devised but to which he had made fundamental contributions, taking them to intolerable extremes at a very high cost to the government.

WATCH THE VIDEO: