javier milei it is an anomaly in Argentine politics. His libertarian identity, his cascade of insults, the particular touch of his long hair and his rocker pose, his past as a media economist, the hatred he claims to have against all “the caste” and, especially, the fact of having armed himself with the nothing a space that debuted in an election getting 17% of votes separates it from the rest. However, hidden from view, the deputy has a striking singularity: unlike what happens with Cristina Kirchner or Mauricio Macri, it is almost impossible to distinguish him from the party he commands. One is a mirror of another, or rather, an extension.
If Milei screams, in Freedom Advances there is screaming If Milei distrusts a large part of those around him, in La Libertad Avanza there are successive raids where they expel the “traitors” in cold blood and where those who remain follow him with blind faith, as a messianic leader. If Milei relied on her sister all her life, it is she who is in charge of the central themes and monopolizing the box in La Libertad Avanza. If Milei wants to star in an electoral ballot at all costs and fill stages, as she dreamed of since she sang in a Stone band, La Libertad Avanza closes the necessary agreements for that to happen, even if that means agreeing with “the caste” that the deputy swore to come to destroy If Milei likes women of a certain physical build, influencers grow in La Libertad Avanza who became known for uploading hot content to their networks, while complaints of “sexual favors” and accusations of all kinds towards various leaders are appearing. Where one story begins the other ends.
Crazy boots. So, if the libertarian’s space is equal to him -or his putative son-, the doubt that remains is clear. Who is Javier Milei? Who is the outsider who burst into politics out of nowhere less than two years ago and who is now, according to all the polls, headed to make a great election and perhaps enter a ballotage?
Perhaps the answer is in his biography. Horacio was an absent father, who had a rapid escalation from bus driver to owner of various transportation lines. In Villa Devoto, where the Milei lived and where the later deputy went to the Cardenal Copello school, one of the two large schools in the area, no one ever saw or remembers Horacio, despite the fact that in the seventies that neighborhood was much smaller and residential than it is today. Some remember Alicia, his mother, and talk about the two white Pekingese dogs he used to walk with, but not much else. What Javier’s neighbors and colleagues did not know was what was happening behind closed doors. And they could not know it because he was never a very social young man, he did not leave friends at school, neither in the neighborhood nor in Chacarita Juniors, the club in which he played from 1983 to 1989 -and where he left behind a reputation as a brave goalkeeper who to drop centers without paying attention to the physical integrity of the rivals-. But, although it was not known outside his house, his childhood and that of his younger sister, Karina, was marked by a long series of torment and abuse by his parents. It was a sad story that would keep the economist separated from his parents for several decades, until at the end of 2018, after a lot of water under the bridge, life brought them back together and they decided to leave the past behind.
Can this paragraph about the history of miley, a life summarized in a thousand characters, explain everything that happens in the space that he founded and commands? Difficult, although it can provide some light. For example, from the very beginning of La Libertad Avanza, the economist, a man who was never good at social relations, was very suspicious of who accessed the first ranks of the armed forces. That original core included influencers Emmanuel Dannan, “The Presto”to the lawyer Carlos Maslatonand, one step below, to the one who would later be president of the libertarian youth, mila zubriggen. All of them, after Milei agreed to his seat in Congress, would be expelled or invited to leave the place, the same thing that would happen to a dozen other leaders. Although all the declared rebels came from different places or had different histories, they shared some characteristics: they all had their own voice, the backs enough to argue with the leader or to grow as figures with their own weight, or, contrary to what would later be shown Milei, were not willing to accept any agreement in order to reach the presidential election. In addition, although the dismissed have differences among themselves, all those who left point to an intangible but central aspect in this story: Milei’s personality, which they describe as unstable, and the businesses that are being generated around her. “Milei went crazy, makes one absurd statement after another, and together with his sister Karina and Kikuchi (ndR: Carlos, the black monk from space), they took it upon themselves to exterminate the liberal militancy,” says Maslatón. “Javier has an air of messianism, he played with our hopes and took advantage of our youth. He is a person who does not listen and who betrayed his most loyal people for money and dirty people”, points out Zurbriggen, who left the party making serious complaints about the sale of positions and about the “sexual favors” that “prostitutes” do within of the armed In off, many of those who left are even more crude. “Javier is a good guy, but he was not right in the head before and now, with so much centrality, he went crazy, he sees conspiracies everywhere, even in the people who accompanied him when he was nobody.”
Puppeteer. These accusations are coupled with a reality: those who were close to Milei lack their own weight, a previous political career and -except for the occasional gripes that he has with his sister- they do not discuss anything with him.
Although there are several cases, the one that stands out the most is that of Lilia Lemoinea famous cosplayer in that field who in 2019 ventured into politics in the space of Jose Luis Espert and is Milei’s right hand since he made his electoral debut. She is his advisor – she does his hair and makeup for interviews or speeches, an action for which she receives a succulent salary from the Buenos Aires Legislature where La Libertad Avanza has five members – and she is a fanatical defender of the “leader”, as she calls it. In private, she speaks of the deputy as a “chosen one” who is on a “mission” to “save” the country.
Lemoine was one of the few to agree with the economist when he spoke of legalizing the sale of organs, and she is capable of fighting and threatening those who have differences with Milei. “Piece of poop, stop fucking with me, because I’m going to find out who you are and without anonymity you won’t be so macho, asshole,” she says in an audio that has gone viral in recent weeks, in a crossover with a Twitter user. In November of last year in San Juan, she had an ugly fight with the president of the Libertarian Party of that town, who had separated from Milei with accusations similar to those made by all those who leave. In the video it is seen how Lemoine goes to look for her, kicks her, threatens her and ends up pushing her until they separate her from her. The deputy’s adviser also starred in a complex episode with Zurbriggen. He crossed her at the exit of the A24 channel, where she went to tell the complaints she has against the space, insulted her and uploaded to the networks the recording in which she included -and made it notice- the license plate of the car in which he retired. “That is a fascist practice, and it is done by someone who is on Milei’s side. What has this space become?” says one of those who left.
In addition, Lemoine shares another particularity with several figures that today appear near Milei. It is that both she and María Celeste Ponce, president of the “Pumas Libertarios” group, Juliana Santillán, one of the assembly companies in Buenos Aires, and Lourdes Palavecino, another important militant in space, usually upload hot photos to the networks or directly profit from it. Lemoine sold erotic images of her, in dollars, on a site called “Patreon”, and she is not the only one on this list that generated income in this way, an activity that is far from what other militants or politicians usually do. When Zurbriggen spoke of “sluts and prostitutes” who do “sexual favours” and that thanks to that “acceed to positions for which they don’t care” he was focusing on this. A clarification: the “positions” are, in truth, places of greater relevance within the space, which only had an electoral baptism of fire and that in truth does not have too many “positions” to distribute, beyond those of the Buenos Aires Legislature.
However, the bomb that Zurgbriggen exploded brought a lot of tail because this was precisely a topic debated indoors. It is that all discussions end in one place: how will the national list be put together and the Milei provincial lists for the elections. Although at first glance it might seem like a fight of egos, it is exactly the opposite: despite the fact that nobody imagines the libertarian being President by the end of the year, the 18 or 20 points that the polls predict make him the goose that lays the eggs of gold. Everyone who goes to the top of the legislative lists will end up getting a more than profitable job for at least four years.
That reality is true for all parties with a chance in the elections, but in The case of La Libertad Avanza has a particularity. It is that there is everything except transparent the method in how the charges are distributed. It is not based on merit, because of the votes it can contribute, because of the militants or the armed forces, as happens in other spaces. One suspicion, according to those who are leaving, is that in this party you are promoted for “sexual favors.” Another is, plain and simple, with silver. In a chat that NEWS revealed in its previous edition, Karina Milei whitewashed that her brother did not attend any “dinner” if they “did not pay” before, a fee that according to sources ranges from 3,000 to 10,000 Dollars. It is just a part of a more complex reality: it is a party crossed by complaints about the sale of positions, that politicians from each province who have a seal and box “buy” Milei’s support for local elections. On Sunday, March 5, an ally of the libertarian debuts in Trelew, a former lieutenant governor of Chubut who was ultra K (see box). Will the box have to do with this support or will the man suddenly have become a liberal? On the question of how to escalate in this party, the question of who makes it up is also raised. About the president of the Libertarian Party of Buenos Aires, a key ally of Milei, there are accusations of violence and other even more scandalous ones (see collection).
Months after the elections, the scenario within La Libertad Avanza is chaotic. Just like their leader.
