What is the limit between the private life of a politician and the public one? To what extent does one influence the other? How far does it explain it?
These questions are part of a historic debate between journalists and analysts. Opinions do not always coincide and there was never consensus on this long discussion. Perhaps one of the many new things that Javier Milei came to bring is also on this topic. The thing is that, in the case of the candidate with the most votes in the PASO, the line between one border and another is blurry. For many people who have known him, that barrier is directly nonexistent.
It is impossible to separate the Milei who was a victim of parental violence at home, who suffered bullying at school, who did not have friends or a partner for most of his life, who later became convinced that Conan was not his dog but your son. And that chapter is central to understanding why when the animal died, in 2017, the libertarian entered a mystical path, between mediums and telepaths, who would begin to communicate with the afterlife and then with God himself. This would be the one who, in the back and forth dialogues that he claims to have, would convince him to get into politics for the first time, because he had “a mission” which was none other than to be President in 2023.
The line that runs through this turbulent biography, which connects the beaten and abandoned child with the presidential candidate, is one: an absolute and dark loneliness. Milei met her first friend when she was almost 35 years old, and her first partner, the cumbia singer Daniela, when she was 47. Since she adopted Conan, in 2004, until he died in 2017, she spent thirteen Christmases and thirteen new years toasting only him, locked in his apartment.
This lack of deep and lasting ties with other people is the most identifying trait of the libertarian. And it is also the reason for his success, first in the media and then politically: the Milei shown on television panels, the Milei who got angry, shouted and fought, the public Milei, was the same as the private one. He was the real one. Milei, with a violent, difficult and lonely life, with a borderline life, touched the fibers of a society that was also pushed into a violent, difficult and lonely life. Which is also border.
And that complex personal history is perhaps the great element that unites him with his new partner, Fátima Florez, who also carries her own ghosts. They seem to be the duo that best interprets the spirit of these times, that of a country exhausted after ten years of economic and political crisis, a pandemic that left 130,000 dead, and an insecurity that does not let up. It is the duo that best embodies this border Argentina.
Long live freedom. “They are one for another. They look like ‘The Addams Family’.” The phrase is from a person close to Florez, who has been closely following the political romance of the moment. The source connects Florez’s particular biography with that of Milei.
She also had a difficult childhood and life, although with many levels of violence below that of her current boyfriend. Her family was always dysfunctional – with separated parents – and she historically occupied the place of the “Ugly Duckling” of the clan. She was not, by any means, the favorite between the two sisters.
That idea increased when she whitewashed her intentions to dedicate herself to show business, a profession that did not sit well at all, especially with her father. Nor did the decision of a teenage Fátima to start traveling through Latin America with the intention of seeing her career take off. What ended up dynamiting the situation was when she, at the age of 19, began dating Norberto Marcos, then 43, who would later become her husband for more than two decades. The age difference fell heavily on the family. “After that, Fátima barely maintained a relationship with her father and her mother. They forgot about her daughter. It took them many years to get closer,” says a person who knows her well.
Those who know her, and know all this background, are not at all surprised by her relationship with the La Libertad Avanza candidate. It’s something that echoes what they say around Milei. “They are very in love, it may seem bizarre but hey, that’s how they are,” they say near the libertarian. Mirtha Legrand, in the program with which she premiered her 55th season and which featured the presence of the brand new couple, summed it up in her own particular way: “You guys are weird, huh.” Fátima, who met Milei at her diva’s table in December 2022, did not let her pass. “For me we are just like that,” she replied.
Backstage. At dinner with Legrand, Milei and his girlfriend defined themselves as an “explosive couple,” almost as if “they were teenagers.” It was a phrase that did not convince the entire public: skeptical comments about the romance circulated on the networks after the television debut, and the host Ángel de Brito gave them even more flight in his program. “I saw Mirtha’s entire debut. The only thing it generated in me is distrust. I don’t believe them at all. I don’t believe the couple, nothing, nothing closes me,” he said in LAM.
However, anyone who had been in the Channel 13 studio on Saturday could easily deny it. A producer had to enter the dressing room where Milei and Fátima were waiting for their call on the air almost as if he were a member of Grupo Halcón. The thing is that the lovebirds, taking advantage of the wait, were all over each other. In the hallways of that television set they say that it was not easy at all to separate them.
The neighbors of the imitator, from her home in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Palermo, could also testify in this regard. On those streets they say that the presidential candidate spends most nights there, or so the presence of his car would seem to indicate. It is a Peugeot RCZ that became famous after he picked up Florez after Tinelli’s program, and that went viral on the networks due to the level of dirt on the vehicle. In Palermo they say that the car arrives at night and leaves a while before ten in the morning.
However, it is not all roses in the relationship. The absence of Karina Milei in Legrand’s study is a strong sign, especially if one takes into account that the libertarian’s sister follows him as if she were her shadow, especially on television channels. Why wasn’t she the youngest in the family? Leaders of La Libertad Avanza confirm that the relationship between the two women is not the best: both compete for the monopoly of Javier’s attention and Karina was always very jealous in taking care of access to her brother. “Kari hates her,” sums up a source.
We must not read this only as a fact of private life, but here also the public sphere is touched again. The thing is that the power that Karina has in space – where she absorbs powers that in any other party are divided among ten people – is nourished purely and exclusively by the role that her brother gives her. She is “the boss” because she is the boss for Javier. From Fátima’s side they maintain the same thesis about the relationship with Karina. Will Milei ever have to choose between the two women?
So, not only could there be a conflict brewing at an eventual family lunch. It could escalate to politics. In fact, many in Milei’s space, suffering from Karina’s total power as well as her ways, are betting and praying that this rift will widen.
These short circuits echo what happens in Fátima’s family. The thing is that both her father and mother had a Peronist heart all their lives, later becoming a Kirchnerist (now the mother would be more devoted to the PTS of Nicolás del Caño and Myriam Bregman), while the actress’s sister is a convinced feminist. Although they still do not know the brand new boyfriend – in the same way that Florez has not yet gone to Milei’s house in a charming country in Benavídez, nor met the clones of Conan, her deceased dog -, it would seem that the friction between the two parts are about to fall.
December 10. So much exposure, in the middle of the electoral campaign and with a candidate as controversial as Milei, could have an uncertain ending. “She is afraid of ending up like Dady Brieva,” they say close to the actress.
It is the fear of the stigma that the partisanship of the figures of the show brings, or the effect that this can have on their performance. “Politicizing is anti-artistic,” saxophonist Willy Crook used to repeat. Here the repercussions would seem to arrive soon. Florez has already had performances canceled in some municipalities in the province of Buenos Aires and also other appearances, such as one he had with a famous circus in the country. It is clear that, from now on, many will see Milei when they see Fátima, and all those who do not share the particular ideology of the libertarian – where the theses in favor of the sale of organs and children coexist with the proposal for the elimination of the national currency – could stop having sympathy for the actress. It is, in fact, something that she has already been suffering from. “She was always very loved in this world, it’s a shame,” she tells those around her.
There they already show some concern. “She has a lot to lose, he has a long career, a very respected name, and suddenly if Javier wins the elections, starting December 10 the night could come.” On December 19, days after the transfer of command, Florez will premiere his show in Mar del Plata. “International Fatima”, she will be called, where she will debut new characters. “If he wins, I will be the first First Lady in history to work,” is a reflection that she often shares. Meanwhile, the candidate is advising her in the complex process of her divorce from her ex-husband. There is a lot of push and pull over the separation of assets.
Both those who deal with Fátima and Milei see both of them very well in that couple. As already explained in this note, knowing the lives of the two, this couple, which caught the attention of many, would even seem to have a future ahead of them.
Either way, all this matters little. What is relevant is that on August 13, seven million people elected Milei to be their future president. And, above all, what is relevant is that everything seems to ensure that this number will not only be maintained but will grow in the general elections. The important thing, then, is that so many Argentines understand that he is the libertarian, the unstable candidate who is convinced that he is talking to a dead dog and even to God, the right leader for these times. The question, then, is another. What happens in a border country if it is governed by a border leader?
