Javier Milei is infatuated like a boy. He did not want to remove José Luis Espert from the libertarian ticket, he resisted until the last minute and now, when the decision became inevitable and his candidate is already out of the game, he still supports him. He simply does not give up: he had to hand over his old friend, but he supports him until the end. For example, in his bizarre Movistar Arena on Monday, the President recalled that it was the bald economist who got him into politics, he thanked him from the bottom of his heart and made the entire stadium chant his name: “Espeeert, Espeeert.” Yes, the name of a deputy who had just been expelled for his ties to an alleged drug trafficker.
Milei also did something else. Hours before the show, he retweeted a post on the social network The idea had been from one of the Government’s trolls, the user @GordoLibertario, who said: “What if… Minister of Security?” And the President shared the extravagant idea. Can anyone imagine Espert managing the country’s security after being involved in a drug scandal? It was preferable, for that, that he remain a candidate for deputy.
Before the outcome, the entire presidential environment agreed that Espert should step down to avoid even greater damage to the Government in the elections in the Province, but Milei was the one who, until Sunday afternoon, supported him in total solitude. The President and the resigned candidate also share a lawyer, Francisco Oneto, the same one who in parallel defends the alleged drug trafficker “Fred” Machado, related to Espert.
Hours before the resignation, when they had already concluded that it was inevitable, advisor Santiago Caputo suggested to Milei that he should take advantage of the interview that he would give that same Sunday to journalist Luis Majul to cast him live, on TV, and thus hit the table and a show of authority. But the President, hopeless, preferred another formula: that Espert himself announce his departure “for the good of Argentina” and that he alone accept it. A way of not exposing his old friend and political godfather, who welcomed him into his Avanza Libertad space back in 2021, shortly before they fought over issues of appearance and money. Milei, let us remember, accused Espert of trying to bribe him with 300 thousand dollars to get him to drop his candidacy in CABA, which upset an ally of the economist, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta. The other privately explains that there was never that amount of money on the table, and that what he offered was only the “monthly payment” that he paid Milei to serve in his space. In one case or another, it doesn’t seem like there were any bills involved. All groncho.
Espert and Milei are inseparable. One knows too much about the other.
