Friday, November 14, office of the vice president in the Senate. Victoria Villarruel receives Patricia Bullrich. There were no cameras, no official photo, no toasts. Only coffee, forced smiles, gifts with subliminal messages and a dense climate that not even the air conditioning of Congress could hide.
They were alone for a little over an hour. They talked about “institutionality” and “collaboration,” as they later said. But the fine details of the exchange came wrapped in the souvenirs. Bullrich left Villarruel a National Constitution as a gift. You didn’t need Google or ChatGPT to understand the hint: it was a response to the accusations of coup plotting that the vice president received from the harshest milieu circles.
Villarruel responded with a bottle of wine. Malbec. A nod to the minister’s supposed weakness for spirits. Bullrich arrived early and with the smile of someone who knows he has the upper hand. As Minister of Security and senator-elect for the City, she made it clear that from December she will be the head of the La Libertad Avanza bloc in the Upper House.
The meeting was another chapter in a story that started awry. In 2023, when Milei was still a candidate, he had promised that Security and Defense would remain under the orbit of his running mate. Villarruel believed it. She appeared on television as the reference in those areas. But after the runoff, Milei lowered the hammer: Bullrich to Security, Petri to Defense. Villarruel had to settle for only the Senate.
Now Bullrich is back in Congress, but with another centrality: he will be the visible face of the ruling party in the Upper House to confront Kirchnerism and try to advance with the reforms sought by the Government. With his arrival, the ruling bloc will increase its troops for the coming years. It will go from having just 7 senators (with whom the mandate began in 2023) to 21 of its own members —after incorporating 13 elected members.
In addition, the reinstatement of Francisco Paoltroni and the transfer of Carmen Álvarez Rivero from the PRO—, becoming the second force behind Unión por la Patria/Fuerza Patria, which will drop from 33 to around 27 seats. This leap triples the libertarian representation and allows the Government to be closer to the blocking third (24 votes) to defend presidential vetoes and complicate opposition projects, although it will still depend on alliances with radicals (9), the residual PRO (5) and provincial blocks to achieve a quorum (37) or aggravated majorities.
There is one more detail: Patricia Bullrich could not last long in the Senate. Within the official space, it is assumed that in 2027 he wants to compete for the leadership of the Buenos Aires Government. If that comes to fruition, her place would be occupied by the substitute: Pilar Ramírez, president of the LLA bloc in the Buenos Aires Legislature and main operator of Karina Milei in the City.
Translated: if Bullrich leaves, the chair is armored by the libertarian hard core, consolidating the advance of La Libertad Avanza on the historic yellow fiefdom and guaranteeing that the bank remains in the hands of the most orthodox milleism.
