Javier Milei has already chosen. Pablo de la Torre will be in charge of administering the social policies of the government of the libertarian economist who will have to say what to do with 1,200,000 social plans, more than 40 percent of poverty and rising inflation while promising adjustment.
The current Secretary of Children of San Miguel and brother of the former mayor of the Buenos Aires municipality and government minister of María Eugenia Vidal, Joaquín de la Torre, has already tried on the suit. According to Clarín, this week he held a one-on-one meeting with the Minister of Social Development Victoria Tolosa Paz on the 14th floor of the old Ministry of Public Works, on 9 de Julio.
There was no photo of the meeting. De la Torre, who whitewashed his support for Milei on October 25 with a photo and a promise to end Kirchnerism, will be under the orbit of the super-ministry of Human Capital, which will be controlled by Sandra Pettovello as Milei announced during the campaign.
During the campaign, the now president-elect reiterated that he would not eliminate social plans. In social organizations they are not so optimistic. "Adjusting is going to adjust. The question is whether they add persecution to that," says one of the heads of the social organizations that during these 4 years managed several secretariats of state. Prosecutor Guillermo Marijuan continues to investigate inconsistencies among the beneficiaries of the Potencio administered by the organizations.
This week, the future secretary of Social Development defined the situation of the plans as "a total lack of control." "We are going to give social plans but we are not going to leave those who receive them stranded. It's the way for people who haven't worked for a long time to recover the culture of work, get ahead and stop depending on the state," said De la Torre.
Pablo de la Torre with Sandra Petovello, future Minister of Human Capital.
The leaders of the Evita Movement have already tried to build bridges with De la Torre. There have already been telephone contacts with several secretaries of state, such as the head of Social Economy Emilio Pérsico. "He's a Peronist, a popular conservative, and he's going to drive it," said a leader of the social movements of the current ruling party, which will soon return to the plains.
Milei promised a total adjustment on the public accounts of 15% of GDP. Privately, sources in the future government admit that the cut could be as much as a third of what was announced. The social plans – the Potentiate Work, which consumes half of the Social Development budget – represent less than one point, but the account grows if the Food Card is taken into account.
Pérsico, who is secretary of Social Economy, and Daniel Menéndez, who chairs the Council of the Popular Economy, have already signed their respective resignations from their positions, although it has not yet appeared in the Official Gazette.
On Wednesday, the Union of Workers of the Popular Economy (UTEP), which brings together social organizations, will make official its new leadership, which will be in charge of Alejandro "Peluca" Gramajo, one of the leaders closest to the leader of Evita. In the former CTEP, where the MTE of Juan Grabois, who traveled to Rome to meet with the Pope, is also strong, they remain expectant and on alert. The social organizations of Peronism played hard in the election and bet on the candidacy of Massa, who promised to speed up the delivery of lots with services. That is precisely the platform promoted by Ricardo Inti Alpert, advisor to Pérsico until 2 years ago and who would now remain as virtual secretary of Housing, it is not yet known if with the same script. "We didn't know how to take advantage of it."
Close to the Church and father of 7 children, Pablo de la Torre and his brother Joaquín work together, as part of the same political apparatus. Those close to the former mayor of San Miguel, who always supported Patricia Bullrich's chances during the campaign, maintain that he continues to remain with JxC and that Pablo's arrival to coordinate social programs is not a return of favors. In private conversations, more than 18 months ago the former Buenos Aires government minister – who intended to run for governor – identified that Cambiemos would have no chance of coming to power if it did not add the libertarian to its arm.
Unidad Piquetera, which brings together the leftist organizations that remained outside the UTEP and away from the government of Alberto Fernández, staged the first march against the Executive on Thursday. Between comings and goings, Libres del Sur, the organization led by Silvia Saravia, was part of the group that supported Florencio Randazzo in 2021, whom Guillermo Francos is pushing as eventual president of the Lower House.
With the permanent specter of a hot December, Milei, de la Torre and the future Minister of Economy will have to decide whether to enable an end-of-year bonus for the 1,200,00 beneficiaries of the Potenciar. The measure became a kind of state policy more than a decade ago. "There is no money," the president-elect warned. "So far we have no idea what they plan to do," the organizations say.