Unless a presidential candidate can take it for granted that he will win by a very wide margin in the elections that are about to be held, he will want to be accompanied by a running mate who is capable of adding votes, that is, by someone with a different profile than his own. . It is therefore logical that, once in power, the differences between the two tend to make themselves felt and that, with some frequency, they turn out to be so great that they end up causing a major crisis.
This is what happened in mid-2008, when Vice President Julio Cobos’ “no positive” vote put President Cristina Fernández on the brink of resignation. Likewise, more than a decade later, the then vice president Cristina managed to turn the management of her subordinate, the nominal president Alberto Fernández, into a tragicomic farce that would have dire consequences for millions of Argentines, especially for many who, the Last year, they voted for the ruling party Sergio Massa who, with his money plan, was taking the country towards a hyperinflationary abyss.
Fortunately, it is unlikely that the fight between Javier Milei and Victoria Villarruel will prove to be as damaging as those conflicts of the recent past or others that preceded them. The truth is that, for most, the matter causes more surprise than concern. What is the reason for the brawl? There are those who attribute it to the lack – or excess – of chemistry between Karina Milei and the vice president. Others attribute it to the fact that, in almost all polls, Villarruel leads the president by a few points and his sister by many. For her part, Milei accuses her of flirting with “the caste” she despises and with the sinister “red circle” that surrounds him, which is why she refuses to allow her to participate in strategic meetings. The president will be right; When it comes to interacting personally with political professionals and businessmen, Villarruel is much more accessible than his boss. They speak the same language.
Is Villarruel an authentic libertarian, a warrior of the forces of heaven that are attacking the collectivist evil that, according to Milei, is responsible for the country’s ruin and threatens to bring down Western civilization? For the most fervent milleistas, it is not, since her image is that of a Catholic, xenophobic and conservative nationalist, one who, in other words, causes them problems by vindicating the military who were so mistreated by the Kirchnerists, which is why who, in Madrid, embraced Isabelita Perón. For reasons that are not very clear, Milei is uncomfortable with the militancy of the vice president in favor of “complete memory” of what happened in the leaden years of the last century, since many continue to minimize the contribution to the Montoneros disaster and the ERP who, it should go without saying, never expressed any interest in the human rights of others.
From the point of view of such libertarians, Villarruel represents a powerful traditional current that is hardly compatible with the drastic changes that Milei is promoting. Although scholars of the Austrian School, such as the venerated Friedrich von Hayek, influenced the thinking of Pope John Paul II about the dilemmas posed by economic reality, the current pontiff, Jorge Bergoglio, does not share the convictions of his illustrious predecessor. Polish nor, needless to say, those of Hayek. It would be surprising if Villarruel felt offended by Bergoglio’s attachment to ideas and attitudes that, in Milei’s opinion, are satanic.
It is natural that, when the differences between the president and the person who, “a heartbeat” away from the first magistracy, heads the line of succession are striking, there is speculation about the eventual political project of the person who at any time could take power. In the opinion of the most benign, in that case Villarruel would dedicate himself to consolidating Milei’s work, but others suspect that he would take advantage of the opportunity to install a government that, according to progressive guidelines, would be very reactionary and certainly authoritarian. Be that as it may, judging by what has already been said by Milei himself and by the attitude of those who make up the official “iron triangle”, the members of the government leadership believe that, unless they manage to discredit it in time, Villarruel He could become a strong rival, hence the attacks of which he is the target.
So far, efforts in this regard have not been of much use. Although Villarruel has limited himself to “ringing the bell” in the Senate and trying to form temporary majorities, opposing Milei’s difficult to explain desire to make federal judge Ariel Lijo a member of the Supreme Court, traveling from time to time and contributing to “The cultural battle” criticizing Governor Axel Kiciloff’s decision to distribute what he believes are pornographic books in Buenos Aires schools, continues to have a very high level of public approval. What’s more: he often appears as the most popular political figure in the country.
Because? Perhaps because he offers the impression of embodying a balmy antidote to Milei’s barely contained fury and providing a sense of “normality” in a government that, even to many who applaud what it is doing, resembles a shrink. In other words, although the circumstances are now different, Villarruel continues to effectively fulfill the function for which Milei, advised by Karina and the Wizard of the Kremlin, Santiago Caputo, will have decided that it would be in his best interest to make her his electoral companion.
Before the second round, Milei knew that he would have to add support to defeat the Peronist Massa and that Villarruel, like Mauricio Macri, would help him do it, but he soon realized that, thanks to his own popularity surviving the adjustment, his financial successes and the confusion prevailing in the opposition ranks, he could do without the services that had been provided to him. Although it has been quite easy for him to keep Macri at bay, who, like many others, vacillates between prioritizing a tough economic program that he believes is necessary and defending the interests of the party he created, it has not been so easy for him to get rid of Villarruel who, happily For her, for constitutional reasons it is beyond the reach of the presidential chainsaw.
In his own way, the vice or, if you prefer, the image that has been created around him, represents a less dogmatic, more institutional variant of what is proposed by the libertarian ultras led by Milei who aspire to radically change the current consensus. in the collective Argentine mind. Encouraged by what they have already achieved and by the international repercussions of what they are doing, they are only willing to make agreements with uncritical believers in the gospel according to Milei. Although such intransigence disturbs classical liberals, libertarians can point out that lukewarm “right-wing” governments tend to prepare the ground for the return of left-wingers, such as those who just won the elections in Uruguay and who, a couple of years ago, , they did the same in Chile, which in their opinion would be calamitous for the country. Do they exaggerate? It is legitimate to argue that, as long as a government of any kind clings to the basic fiscal principles stressed by the president and never allows public spending to exceed what is collected, its cultural positions will matter little, but from the point of view of the milleists , those who think like this are miserable heretics.
In addition to the ethereal forces of heaven, others that are very earthly collaborate with libertarians. Even if the emotional ties that Milei has established with the North American Donald Trump, the mega-millionaire of South African origin Elon Musk, the Italian Giorgia Meloni and other figures of the international “new right” do not bring them immediate tangible benefits, the fact that he is a recognized leader of the new elite that is being formed makes the notion that the movement he has launched is global less extravagant. If the feeling spreads that mileism is something more than an Argentine extravagance because it already influences the politics of the most powerful country on the planet, it will be much easier for it to consolidate it here.
Everywhere, the desire to feel “on the right side of history” affects the behavior of people who have never shown interest in what happened in past eras. The Kirchnerists who allied themselves with Latin American “twentieth century socialism” and began to import “woke” novelties from the United States understood this very well because they believed that providing an impression of progressive modernity would help them. Unfortunately for them, although they gained the support of intellectuals, entertainment figures and others who wanted to stay up to date, what was fashionable until very recently now seems outdated in the eyes of the younger generations. It is more than likely that, sooner or later, mileism as we know it will suffer the same fate, but in the meantime, it could carry out the many economic reforms that will be necessary for the country to finally leave the secular crisis behind. that has caused him so much harm.
