There is not a day in the two and a half weeks that he has been in power that Javier Milei does not make some public gesture of defiance with the opposition. A critical mass is consolidating in that territory that judges the DNU of 66 articles sent to Congress to begin the process of reforms. The coincidence would be parked, basically, on one point: the unconstitutionality of the rule. The content would be another story.
The presidential spokesman, Manuel Adorni, reiterated in the last few hours an opinion that the libertarian leader repeats repeatedly on the networks: "The opponents must choose between accompanying what the people have voted for or continuing to obstruct," he said. The strategy remains the same as it was at the beginning. To assert 56% of the ballot while some agreement is being tried with governors and non-Kirchnerist opponents that will allow parliamentary progress during the summer.
The contingency plan lays bare two issues. Milei's audacity inaugurated with his arrival at the Casa Rosada. An intrinsic weakness in the idea that popular suffrage could sustain everything in the medium and long term. Perhaps that's why he decided to move forward with a couple of decisions.
The call for extraordinary sessions, formalized yesterday, included a bill to debate the reforms proposed in the State. A sign that not all of his purposes would be carried out with the sticks. It also incorporated deliberations on the Single Ballot for future elections. An initiative that was approved in 2022 in Deputies, but was pending in the Senate.
On that occasion, the project had 132 votes contributed by the Radicalism, the PRO, the Civic Coalition, the dissident Peronism and La Libertad Avanza. The 104 against were mostly won by Union for the Fatherland. Detail: Milei's proposal ignored the elimination of the PASOs, as he had been promising in the campaign.
The impulse would denote the pretense of building some bridge with the opposition of what was once Together for Change. The Single Ballot represents a historic resistance in Kirchnerism. Cristina Fernández knew how to block it in the Senate. That tool would now have acquired an overvaluation after the national defeat and the re-election of Axel Kicillof in Buenos Aires. There's the K resistance.
The Simultaneous and Mandatory Open Primary Elections (PASO) divide the fields of politics in a transversal way. The opposition and Kirchnerism would agree on a similar topic. The timing of that experiment does not fit in with the political urgencies that Argentina always exhibits. The crisis that opened up when Mauricio Macri was defeated by Alberto Fernández in 2019 is remembered. Between August and October, the date of the general elections, a veritable martyrdom reigned.
A similar situation was recorded this year. Milei's triumph in the PASO and Patricia Bullrich's second place forced Sergio Massa to adopt a series of economic resolutions that deepened the crisis, now inherited by the libertarian administration, to the extremes. The maneuvers accelerated inflation and left Argentina bankrupt and defenseless.
The concordant view on this point, however, spurs the doubts between Cambiemites and Kirchnerism. In 2015, Juntos carried out a great process of accumulation during the internal elections that ended up consecrating Macri. The phenomenon could not be repeated this year between Bullrich and Horacio Rodríguez Larreta. Worse than that: there was a flight of votes in the October general election.
Kirchnerism spent years analyzing with envy that first practice of Juntos. He resisted executing her. When he did, it was because he had no other choice. Reality forced the competition between Massa and Juan Grabois. In October, the former minister-candidate captured all the piquetero votes and won the general election. The runoff turned out to be a very different story.
Kirchnerism has other priorities right now. It will be left for later to establish some criteria on the PASOs. The urgent debate is to define its profile in the face of the tide of reforms launched by Milei. Its status as the fiercest opposition is very clear. Dogmatic. The dilemma is how to manifest it. Through institutional channels (Congress) or by starting to get excited with street activism.
In the parenthesis between one position and the other, internal conflicts emerge whose derivation is uncertain. The Cámpora is the most visible organization of Kirchnerism. It also creates cracks that are difficult to close. Aníbal Fernández pontificated that the organization led by Máximo Kirchner "is exhausted." He added that "there will have to be a fight between those who claim to represent a sector of Peronism and us, those of the PJ."
The camporistas got another surprise. After repeatedly declaring that Aerolíneas Argentinas would be ceded to its employees in order to end state subsidies, the President appointed Fabián Lombardo as head of the company. During the administration of Juan Pablo Ceriani, of La Cámpora, he led the Commercial Direction, Planning and Management of routes of the airline.
Kirchnerism avoided, for the time being, participating in the first demonstrations against the government that were driven by Eduardo Belliboni's Polo Obrero, the left, the autonomous CTA and other piquetero groups. Since the weekend, there have been meetings to resolve the adhesion to the march that the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) will carry out today to the Courts to protest Milei's mega decree.
The "fat blinders" were last week with deputies from the Union for the Fatherland. In the last few hours, they arranged a meeting with Senator José Mayans. There is a desire for accompaniment (as the CTAs and left-wing groups will do), although one question always hovers: will the confrontation, in this context, help the erosion of Milei's plans? Or will it end up strengthening it?
The doubt is valid because the President, since he took office, has insisted on pointing to "the caste" as his great enemy. Although this denunciation is more part of a story than reality, it is not without certain effects. Milei intends to lock up the opposition in order to expose it to a majority of public opinion that repudiated it at the ballot box. By forcing her to take her first steps on a muddy, slippery floor.