Before the narco scandal, before his links with the businessman “Fred” Machado were checked, before the data of a 200 thousand dollars of the patron arrested to the libertarian deputy, before all that José Luis Espet was already in serious problems. Among those who accused the worst calamities of the economist was a man who knew how to be his political partner, and who today is again, but who fought with him in the middle. We are talking, of course, by Javier Milei.
The story is as follows. It was Espert who made Milei debut in politics and recruited it, in exchange for a monthly payment, for his space advances Libertad. The two got along and had reached an agreement for the legislative of 2021: Espert would appear in the province of Buenos Aires and Milei would do the same in CABA. But something failed, as the president himself told innumerable opportunities before reconciling his head of the list.
A certain afternoon, according to the story of the libertarian leader, they found themselves in a cafe and Espert asked him to go down his candidacy. He had grown too much in the surveys and bit votes to the PRO by Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, who was a strategic ally of the bald economist. Milei reported, then, that the other tempted him with a coima, a suitcase full of money he left on the table: there were 300 thousand dollars, he said, in exchange for giving up being a candidate. He rejected them.
Alejandro Fantino himself, without making names, Milei told him the scene in an interview:
“I was the silver above the table.” And you see the thousands of dollars there and you have to decide. They wanted me to run …
Fantino re -asked until he took out his figure.
Also Lilia Lemoine, always close to Milei, publicly accused Espert for the alleged narco financing of her campaign.
Consulted by the episode, near History. They say that the silver that the economist offered to Milei was actually the monthly payment that he paid him for having him in his space, and that he did not even remotely approached the aforementioned figure. Who to believe?
The rest is known history. After that question, Milei and Espert broke. The libertarian was the same as a candidate and made a good choice in capital: he took 17 points that positioned him as a third force in the district and gave him the thrust for everything that came later. It was the debut of his current seal because, after hitting the door in Avanza Libertad, the candidate created … La Libertad advances. Another flagrant plagiarism among the many that accumulates.
As both in the background are pragmatic people, their paths crossed again when they agreed, after Milei arrived at the presidency. The discussion about who leads and who accompanies, the other was put at his service. In January 2024, Milei received it at Casa Rosada, offered the Budget and Finance Commission in Deputies and the future candidacy in exchange for its incorporation into space. They ended up hugging and jumping, in a small improvised pogo.
The past, torn. For Milei, Espert is no longer a coimero, but the best candidate. Too bad he accused him of driving black silver. And pity, also, the “Fred” Machado.
