“Vogue” was one of Madonna’s biggest hits. It premiered in 1990, after, legend has it, the pop diva saw that particular style of dance – “voguing”, invented by the black, queer and Latino communities as a form of protest – at a party to raise funds against AIDS. Since then the song, which at the time broke all records, became one of the LGBTQ+ anthems. 36 years after its launch it was heard again, but in the corridors of the Senate.
Patricia Bullrich – or rather her “permanent campaign team”, as the WhatsApp group that was created for the 2025 elections is called and is still active with the idea of ”installing the Patricia brand” – uploaded a video to her networks playing with that song. The clip was posted hours after the labor reform had half a sanction in the Upper House. It lasts exactly 45 seconds, and shows the senator as the mistress and mistress of the premises: she walking at a steady pace through the corridors of the Senate in a red suit with a rosette, ordering the libertarian caucus she leads, following the debate, fighting, and celebrating the victory. Bullrich, unlike Madonna, did not dance for the camera, but the senator’s music and movements were tight. The video seems what it is: not only a relaunch of the image of the former Minister of Security, who is sought to be reconverted into the central wheel of the Government’s machinery, but also a piece of political campaign. That it has reached almost a million views on its different social networks and, especially, that whoever wants to retain the monopoly of the political management of the Government only appears in a very brief pane, only made that idea grow. Many believe that, starting with Karina Milei, with whom Bullrich maintains the tense calm that usually precedes storms.
While the Government is going through what is perhaps its best political moment, the senator wants to retain attention and prominence. She managed to sell herself as the great negotiator of the ruling party, that place that had been left vacant after the departure of Guillermo Francos, and dreams of an electoral future in 2027.
To the charge. In June, a few days before the World Cup begins, Bullrich will turn 70 years old. Of those seven decades, almost three (27 years, to be exact) she held positions in the State, under different administrations, which would lead more than one to identify her as one of the most prominent members of “the caste.” Now, as he reaches his seventieth anniversary, Bullrich says privately that he is in “another moment” of his life. That, unlike what happened not so long ago, he no longer has all his libido in politics. Those closest to him say that even they are surprised: until December they were worried about how it would impact his mood to go from the dynamics of the management of the Ministry of Security – in what were marathon days that sometimes went from eight in the morning until twelve at night – to that of Parliament, where there are entire days in which, at a political level, nothing happens. In that circle they say that Bullrich is “enjoying” the moment: he takes advantage of free time to take tennis lessons – along with paddle tennis, his favorite sports -, he went on vacation with his three grandchildren for ten days in Costa Rica, and watches Ángel de Brito’s chimentos program at night. “A few years ago, Patricia got up and went to bed every day thinking first about how to destroy Larreta and then about how to be president. Today she is on a different page,” they say close to her.
The senator’s team swears that not only are they statements of good faith, but they have proof: how docile – “taking into account what Patricia is like” – she was when it came to agreeing to leave the ministry for the senatorship. That was a poisoned treat from Karina Milei, which pushed her to be the first candidate in the City of Buenos Aires in October of last year. Since La Libertad Avanza was born, the youngest member of the Milei family has had the leitmotiv of ensuring that no one in that space dares to discuss her brother’s popularity. All the figures that had some kind of flight of their own were systematically swept away by the sister who, like Attila, does not want even the grass to grow behind her. Her distrust of Bullrich – added to the rejection she always had towards the PRO leaders – was, therefore, to be expected. Especially taking into account the extensive political history of “la Piba”.
Karina, the owner of the pen, pushed Bullrich into the Senate. Not only that: in all the lists – the national ones, those of Buenos Aires and those of the City – she was extremely zealous when it came to giving way to bullrichism, despite the fact that the former minister “took” seven PRO deputies to join the official bloc at the end of last year. However, the secretary general is not known for her generosity. Within the then minister’s team, the doubt arose as to whether to fight or, as the political tactics manual would indicate, wait for the right moment. They decided to turn the other cheek.
2026 began with the agenda passing through Congress, at a time where the ruling party seems to find no resistance. Due to the very dynamics of the political year, and due to Bullrich’s imprint, the lights began to fall on the brand new senator. The first person to notice this, and before the “Vogue” video, was Karina herself.
On January 29, a scene happened that spread like wildfire in the ruling party. Bullrich had been organizing information meetings and open discussions on labor reform since the beginning of the year. He had done one before in Mar del Plata and that day he was in the Capital, in a talk with the official economist Claudio Zuchovicki and the deputy Guillermo Montenegro. Knowing that CABA is a politically sensitive place, where the general secretary has her two bishops, Pilar Ramírez and Manuel Adorni, the senator sent her notification of the event. The subtext was clear: there was a certain risk that this activity would be taken as a pre-launch of the candidacy for the leadership of the Buenos Aires Government, and therefore that an early war would break out. However, everything was going smoothly until a couple of hours before the start of the activity. “Add it to Manuel,” was the message that then reached the Bullrich team, with no room for half measures or negotiations. About the hour, the Chief of Staff joined the panel, and once it concluded Karina also took the stage for the final photo. “What she did was say look, here is my candidate for the City, don’t be confused, I’m in charge,” says a parliamentary source who has been in La Libertad Avanza since its inception. The whole scene was felt like a bucket of cold water for bullrichism. Although they admit that it was an uncomfortable situation, in that world they try to minimize tensions. “Patricia is there for whatever the team asks for, she doesn’t feel like fighting like at other times. Did they want her to be a senator? She was a senator. Don’t they want her anymore? Well, leave office. Do they want her as vice president or for the City? That’s fine,” they say.
It’s not just with Karina that there are sparks. She had loud arguments with Santiago Caputo when she was in the ministry and frequented the Casa Rosada. In addition to an age issue, almost a skin issue, Bullrich never liked the fact that the star advisor sought to monopolize the sensitive areas of management along with his reluctance to have a formal position, something that at least on paper left him out of a possible future court case. It is something very different from what happened to Bullrich: Pablo Grillo, the photographer savagely attacked during coverage the previous year, has already publicly requested that Justice reach not only Corporal Guerrero, who shot him, but also who was a minister at the time.
That bad harmony with Caputo continues in this new stage. The fact that Bullrich has tried to monopolize the negotiations to achieve labor reform did not please the soldiers of “The Forces of Heaven.” Ezequiel Atauche, who reports to the ranks of the “Wizard of the Kremlin,” was the head of the libertarian caucus until Bullrich landed in the Senate. Furthermore, the best indicator to predict the future is usually the past: the star advisor had conflicts and was a great instigator of the departure of Guillermo Francos. Bullrich today seems to occupy that same role, so it would not be a surprise at all if this tension escalates.
Future. Those who insist that the senator today is on a different “tune” also attach other evidence: a video of her tearing up in the Senate, after listening to María Eugenia Rodríguez recount the murder of her nine-year-old daughter. The image of the former Montonera crying is not something that is usually seen.
Will this “new” Bullrich be real? Or is it all a stage show? Guillermo Yanco, her husband of 28 years – now converted into an actor in a play on Corrientes Street – often recalls an anecdote: on the first outing they had, his future wife clarified that his only rule was that he never forced her to choose between “him and politics.” “Because I’m going to stay with politics,” he concluded then.
What the Government then has, hidden behind the success of the approval of the labor reform and the lowering of the age of imputability, may be a latent problem. Bullrich is a senator for six more years and is not close to being fired by decree – as was the case during her tenure in the ministry -, she dialogues with sectors that the rest of the government does not – such as the CGT -, she is applauded by the libertarian public and, rising to the climate of the time, she has ambitions. “Someone like Patricia will never ever give up her dream of being President at some point, the day that happens means she is dead,” ventures someone who has known her for decades.
Just as a theoretical exercise: what would happen in the future if the senator decides to be a candidate for head of the Buenos Aires government and Karina says no? Could he play on the outside, or at least threaten to do so? It is a question that lies in the red circle, at least as a hypothesis.
On the senator’s side, they flatly rule out any conspiracy theory, and offer as proof the good harmony – which continues to grow, this side says – between her and the President. Bullrich prefers to meet hand in hand with Milei, betting on a personal relationship with the libertarian that ended up being expensive for others in the past. Karina does not forgive anyone who claims to have a direct link with her brother without first going through her intermediation. It is worth remembering an anecdote that journalist Emilia Delfino tells in the book she wrote about Victoria Villarruel, a fight between the then candidate and Milei. “I’m going to be vice president and I can’t put anyone on the list,” she reproaches him, to which the libertarian responds: “And neither can I, and I’m going to be President.”
That is why some who have known Bullrich for a long time say that she is not going to wait for any approval when it comes to looking for Jorge Macri’s chair. In fact, Bullrich was going to be part of a delegation from the ruling party that traveled to Madrid at the beginning of February, an agreement with the Complutense University in which Government legislators were invited to see how the municipality of the Spanish capital was managed. Finally, due to the extraordinary sessions and the labor reform, the senator could not go.
That desire to go through the Federal Capital does not come only as a last lick of the ear to the PRO, the space that sheltered her for almost a decade and with which she is now more than bad – with the former president, in fact, the dialogue was interrupted, while Cristian Ritondo complained in public about how he was handled during the treatment of the labor reform -, but as an old desire to have his own power. “She’s tired of being told what to do, of having bosses,” they say.
There is still a long way to go, and for now he will have to deal with the delicate balance of the libertarian ecosystem. We’ll have to see who wins the fight.
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