—Does it have to be just 8M?
—they asked Karina Milei.
The Bicentennial Women's Hall, located on the first floor of the Casa Rosada, was about to cease to exist as it had been conceived by Kirchnerism.
All that remained was to determine the date
.
It had been decided to remove the paintings of Mercedes Sosa, Alicia Moreau de Justo, Alfonsina Storni, Victoria Ocampo, Lola Mora, Mariquita Sánchez de Thompson, those of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, Aimé Painé and Evita, and it was He planned to replace them, among others, with those of San Martín, Belgrano, Sarmiento, Julio Argentino Roca and with that of a single president since the return of democracy whom libertarians venerate: Carlos Saúl Menem.
Until Thursday morning, the place was walled off with A3 sheets so that what was happening inside could not be seen.
The new name was also agreed upon: it would be called the Hall of Heroes.
The change was still kept secret when Karina's collaborators asked aloud if it was most appropriate for the inauguration to coincide with International Women's Day.
—Yes, it has to be the 8th
—answered the general secretary of the Presidency.
His collaborators remained silent for a few seconds.
The dialogue could have ended there, but there was one more question, one last suggestion:
—What if we also include a woman? To Juana Azurduy, for example?
"No, the heroes we choose are all men," Karina said, and the subject was no longer discussed.
Some details remained for the staging.
They remembered quickly.
The new postcards of the room would be filmed, a spot would be created in a hurry so that the information would not be leaked, and the National Anthem would be played as background music.
Everything, edited in a one-minute filming, well thought out for social networks.
Finally, there was a surprise: the voice-over would be provided by Karina herself
, the enigmatic official who maintains an indissoluble partnership with her brother, who controls everything from how the President's drinks are sweetened to who guards him, how he dresses according to the occasion and the one who sits at the small table of political decisions.
The pseudonym that Javier Milei gave him is already famous: El Jefe.
As soon as the libertarian's candidacy began to gain strength, the current president set a condition for those who wanted to discuss power with them.
That condition became a commandment after the December 10 swearing-in:
“Kari is the only person you cannot fight with.”
Some defied that slogan and had to leave, like Carlos Kikuchi, the shipowner - and the one accused of selling candidates - during the campaign.
The vice president, Victoria Villarruel, was also injured.
It's not that they had a fight, but Karina received disqualifications that she didn't like, which alluded to her past as a tarot reader.
Enough.
The general secretary decided this week to burst onto the scene like she had never done before.
It was not unusual to see her attached to her brother at the Cardenal Copello School or at the Expoagro agro-industrial fair - where she acted as a controller to isolate him from businessmen that he did not want to see and where she restrained him when the power went out while he was giving the speech - , but his determination to remove Ramiro Marra - a friend of Milei - from the leadership of the La Libertad Avanza bloc in the Buenos Aires Legislature and to accelerate the inauguration of the Hall of Heroes was striking.
“We come to honor the heroes of our history, those who made Argentina a great country, many of whom were hidden and ignored by the last governments.
We celebrate the heroes of Independence and we celebrate the protagonists of our best years, heroes who gave their lives for the country.
This administration is not going to promote militancy from the State that generate discord and division among Argentines,” says the official in the spot.
The images went viral while, in front of Congress, an impressive mobilization of women criticized the Government and called for an end to sexist violence.
In the Government, no one could say why Karina, who usually takes refuge in a low profile, had launched a battle on March 8.
Provocation?
Coup de effect?
A diversionary maneuver to continue buying time in the midst of the recession and the fierce adjustment of the economy?
A simple gesture of power?
A way to divide the public conversation?
“A little of everything
,” they said at the top of the Executive.
During those hours there was also talk of the imminent meeting of the Government ministers with the governors.
A summit in which Milei preferred not to be.
He did not even stop by to say hello
, as his predecessors did when the provincial leaders met with his ministers.
He remained at the Olivos Residence.
The President views the negotiation process with doubts.
He already said on March 1 that he did not trust the governors.
Maybe, now, I trust less.
Although the meeting was cordial and the ruling party made it clear that they would send a new Omnibus Law (it will have 400 fewer articles than the original, which had 664), their first bargaining chips were almost rejected.
The Nation offered the provinces part of the Income Tax collection, which - if the project was approved - would pay again, at least, the 800 thousand people who stopped doing so in the last stretch of the previous Government.
Nicolás Posse and Guillermo Francos found that many of the leaders reject this maneuver.
Some because they do not want to pay the cost in their provinces - such as the Patagonian governors, in whose districts the majority of formal workers would have to pay again - and others because they believe that it is insufficient or that it responds more to a commitment to the IMF than to the willingness to sit down and have a serious chat about the tax system.
They would prefer that the check tax and the Country tax be shared.
Milei refuses.
At the summit there were some darts, especially from Kirchnerism.
Axel Kicillof demanded that the funds for education and transportation be returned to him and announced that he does not intend to support the Omnibus Law.
Gerardo Zamora from Santiago said that in La Rosada they have “a profound lack of knowledge of how the Interior and the productive apparatus works.”
The PRO leaders were more contemplative.
Rogelio Frigerio, seeing that the conversation was getting stuck, asked to move forward only on the points of agreement.
It will not be easy.
One of the leaders, upon leaving the four-hour meeting, warned in the ear of a minister:
“You can make arrangements with us, but if the President continues bitching at the deputies on Twitter we will not be able to do magic
. ”
A lot of water will flow until May 25.
Not to mention when the new retirement formula is discussed.
In the coming weeks there could be progress in the negotiations between La Libertad Avanza and the PRO.
Milei gave the go-ahead and Mauricio Macri
awaits his call for a decisive match.
The libertarian begins to understand, beyond his rebellion and his anti-system message - which he never abandons, especially in the world of networks - that he cannot do what he wants but, like everyone else, what he can.
The walls that were built in Congress, the cradle of laws, will not fall overnight.
They are not paintings that can be put on and taken off by others.