In the midst of reserved negotiations between the government of Javier Milei and Cristina Kirchner to fill the two vacancies in the Supreme Court—those left by Elena Highton and Juan Carlos Maqueda—two key names emerge: Anabel Fernández Sagasti, proposed by the Cristinista sector, and Mariano Llorens, promoted by the libertarian ruling party. The intention is to avoid new failures in the Senate, where candidacies such as those of Ariel Lijo and Manuel García-Mansilla did not achieve the necessary two-thirds. This time, the agreement would be an exchange of a judge for each side to ensure approval.
Anabel Fernández Sagasti, lawyer and central figure of Christianity, is a senator for Mendoza and a highly trusted leader of the former president. His arrival at the Court would be a symbolic triumph for Christianity, which seeks to regain institutional influence after its electoral setback.
On the libertarian side, Mariano Llorens emerges as the Government candidate. With a long career in different jurisdictions and currently heading the Federal Chamber of Criminal and Correctional Appeals of Comodoro Py, he is considered a more acceptable option for the Senate than previous nominees. His eventual appointment would be exceptional: a judge promoted by a Government without a party structure or legislative majorities, within the framework of an agreement that could even be extended to the position of Attorney General of the Nation, vacant since 2017.
The conversations go through two key operators. In the ruling party, Sebastián Amerio – Secretary of Justice, a trusted man of Santiago Caputo and with ties to the Court – coordinates the negotiations and translates the political strategy into judicial terms. On the Kirchnerist side, Juan Martín Mena, former vice minister of Justice and former number two of the AFI, is Cristina Kirchner’s direct interlocutor and the key to ordering the Senate. Some sources also point out parallel channels where Karina Milei intervenes.
The progress of the agreement depends on the support of governors and a Senate divided into thirds, where the Government could offer as a bargaining chip the acceleration of more than 200 pending judicial vacancies throughout the country. If it prospers, the pact between an ruling party without territorial anchorage and a Kirchnerism in retreat could reconfigure the Court and the judicial architecture, although doubts persist about its political durability.
