One of the dreams of Javier Milei It came to fruition in 2019 when Carlos Menem He invited him to eat at his house. The new President, who then presented himself as a media economist, convinced the former president that he was up to important things, even though he had not yet entered the political arena: “I told him to just leave. “This guy is more Menemist than you,” the man from La Rioja told his daughter Zulemita and his nephew Martín, the organizers of the meeting.
Four years later, Milei inaugurates his government with a strong Menemist reminiscence. Officials are repeated and those ideas are hailed. The emblematic last name is not missing either: it is that Martín Menem, the organizer of that meeting between his uncle and Milei, will be the president of the Chamber of Deputies. A shocking nineties revival.
Menem did it.
The discussion with the PRO about who would command the Lower House was furious. Mauricio Macri asked Milei to be Cristian Ritondo, who could have guaranteed greater muscularity by bringing together the interblocks of Together for Change with those of La Libertad Avanza. But The President ignored the suggestion: he leaned towards the Riojan businessman with a historic last name.
Eduardo Menem’s son entered politics just two years ago: in 2021 he was elected provincial deputy of La Rioja. He wanted to be governor, but in May of this year he came third in the elections, behind Peronism and Together for Change. But five months later he had revenge: dragged by the Milei phenomenon, he won his seat in Deputies, the chamber that he will now preside over.
He will have to juggle to seek approval of each law that the Executive sends to Congress. The thing is that the libertarians will have only 37 deputies of their own. Menem will have to convince the PRO and a large part of the opposition to obtain a quorum in each session. It won’t be an easy debut.
“Martín has no experience. But the people who have experience, and who have been governing us until now, have already seen the result he obtained. That is why a change is needed,” defended Eduardo, who was a senator for more than two decades. And he completed: “He grew up with me, he was very close to politics and he was very close to Carlos, who loved him very much. She was his tennis partner, both as governor and president. And he took him on a trip to the United States to a meeting with Bill Clinton.”
At the close of this edition, another Menem was negotiating his formal entry into the Government. Eduardo “Lule” Menem could become the administrative secretary of the Chamber of Deputies, a key role to accompany his cousin Martín. Son of Munir, former ambassador to Syria, “Lule” was one of the articulators of the La Libertad Avanza campaign in the interior. That work could bear fruit if the designation becomes effective.
With pride, Milei highlights everything that has to do with the nineties around her. On Wednesday the 6th, from their press office they reported that Armando Guibert was joining the Ministry of Reform and Modernization, a key office for his intentions. “He was in charge of the State reform of the Carlos Menem government,” he completed the report.
His cabinet is full of leaders with direct links to the nineties: for example Guillermo Francos, historic cavallista, is one of the team’s main setters; o Rodolfo Barra, who was a judge of the Court and later Menem’s Minister of Justice and now he will be Treasury attorney. Some disciples of Domingo Cavallo will also take part in the initial assembly of Milei. Daniel Tillard, who will preside over Banco Nación, and Joaquín Cottani, who will be in Economy, worked in different “Mingo” teams.whom the libertarian describes as “the best Minister of Economy in history.”
Until Mariano Cúneo Libarona brings a nineties reminiscence to the Mileista team. The lawyer, who will be Minister of Justice, had his media frenzy in that decade for causes that remained in the collective conscience such as the Coppola case.
Other Menemists took the opposite path. Roque Fernández and Carlos Rodríguez, both former Menem officials, did not end up finding their place in Milei’s Cabinet and were left empty-handed.. “I hereby communicate my unwavering decision to end any formal, real or presumed relationship of advice on economic matters in La Libertad Avanza,” Rodríguez wrote weeks ago, when Milei announced that his Minister of Economy would be Luis Caputo. And he added: “I haven’t been consulted in months. “I had made the decision a long time ago.”
From so much praise that the President lavished on Menemism, protagonists who had been in the shadows for a long time reappeared. Milei’s endorsement is total: “Menem’s first presidency was the best in history,” she repeats when asked about the former president.
Idolatry by Carlos Menem.
“In the ’90s, a man from La Rioja came to power who, with shortcomings, put the country back on the path of progress. In that decade there was no inflation, the country was growing and investments were flourishing,” Milei described at the close of his campaign, at the Movistar Arena. His veneration for Menem’s policies is absolute. And the former president’s family appreciates it.
The first to express it was Zulemita, who told how her father had blessed the libertarian at that dinner at his house. “I have all my respect for him because he recognizes my father’s government as the best in democracy,” she tweeted. And he congratulated his cousin on the designation: “The old man told me ‘The lion does not care about the opinion of the sheep.’ You are the clear example, I love you, always proud of you. “To continue putting the Menem surname at the top.” Eduardo also praised him: “Milei is applying some ideas that Carlos had applied, also in very difficult situations.” The compliments from the former president’s family are among those that make Milei most happy.
Some former officials who had preferred a low profile for some decades reappeared. It is the case of Alberto Kohan, investigated in court for illicit enrichment and who had admitted that during Menemism “there were some acts of corruption,” He celebrated Milei’s arrival to power: “He is a Menemist because he recognizes what Menem did during his government. Hopefully I know how to apply authority,” he said in an interview on AM750. And he completed: “I have hope for the country, more than for a government, because this country is very strong.”
also reappeared Carlos Corach. “If he said that he is a Menemist, we welcome Menemism,” stated the former Minister of the Interior. And he advised: “We must privatize everything possible,” to achieve “the fiscal balance that the deficits of public companies also imply.”
Beyond her admiration for the nineties, Milei had a problem: “You are going to do Menemism without dollars,” his brand new Economy team warned him. That will be a strong limitation to being able to emulate that government. In any case, Milei plans to surpass the person he considers his teacher: “Menem told me that I was going to be better than him,” he says, remembering that meeting at the former president’s house. “You are the heir,” Carlos Saúl suggested. He took it literally.
