The fight was frontal.
Total fury and profound disagreement.
Javier Milei insulted and called his vice president a “traitor.”
Karina Milei used even harsher terms against Victoria Villarruel.
At Quinta de Olivos
they were furious
.
There were insults and personal disqualifications.
Hours later, Santiago Caputo activated the “army of libertarian trolls” against the vice president: the “tanks” paid by the AFI repeated the President's fever in a garish manner.
The “troika” spoke of “Victoria's delusions” and
accused her of a political plot with “the caste
. ”
Karina accuses her of being a “climber” and of carrying out a political “plot.”
The vice president was entrenched in the Senate.
She responded candidly to the inquisitors emissaries of the Casa Rosada:
“I only apply the regulations of the Senate
. ”
But Villarruel was sharp in the privacy of his office.
Poisoned darts against Karina:
he calls her “the tarot reader
. ”
The President was not saved either: he does not forgive him for breaking the pact on the ministries of Security and Defense.
In the middle of the day, both of them would have talked.
No one dares to confirm it, but there was communication with
mutual reproaches
.
Milei calls
Victoria
“unfaithful.”
And Villarruel is
“disloyal”
to the President.
Then came what was known: the lapidary note from the Casa Rosada, which makes Milei's “fury” public.
The President became angry, because he knows what is at stake.
The fall of the DNU this Thursday in the Senate exposes its Achilles heel and its
scarce political muscle
: its weakness to implement what it promises to the IMF.
Exactly, in Washington there are doubts about his ability to carry out his program.
The political “crisis” – the first in 100 days – exposed a fight that began the day Milei won.
That night - around the Libertador hotel - Villarruel displayed signs in his favor.
Karina glared at her and retaliated
: she prevented him from going on the stand with her brother.
The fight escalated and the revenge culminated in a controversial decision: to block her desire to impose ministers.
From there, Villarruel put together his own political thread.
He has his own agenda and meets with the “red circle”
.
He also tours the country and participates in every show and party organized by governors and mayors.
The antithesis of Milei
, who hates those festivals.
But things got worse when Villarruel
began to “flirt” with Mauricio Macri
.
He had a secret meeting in December with the former president that awakened all the ghosts in Olivos.
It transpired - and no one ever denied it - that Villarruel expressed that she was willing to continue the libertarian project, in case Milei "got dirty."
That's why on Wednesday in Olivos they got angry.
They shouted: “he wants to boycott us.”
In truth, the Casa Rosada was lacking in reflections.
It was known three weeks ago what the fate of the DNU was in the Senate.
Nicolás Posse ignored the issue in the strategic meeting with governors.
An explicit request from the Chief of Staff to postpone any definition of the DNU
would have avoided the crisis
.
The meeting with governors
The absence of the issue reflects how “green” many officials are.
The meeting with the provincial leaders was
much harsher than what was revealed
.
But the governors would have turned a blind eye to the DNU.
Posse started the match.
The leaders counterpunched: they interrupted to express their displeasure with Milei's attacks.
Hebe Casado - Mendoza's vice president - began the offensive: "We are tired of the aggression, insults and trolls of the Presidency."
Her words - she is an ally of Milei - opened the floodgates: there was a
flood of complaints against Milei's mistreatment
.
Guillermo Francos interrupted everyone.
He raised the volume of his voice and, seriously, said: “I want to clarify an important issue.”
The silence was total.
Francos stated: “The President never said that he is going to piss on all the governors.”
The meeting with the governors at Casa Rosada.
It was a highlight of his visit to Expoagro.
The minister closed: “I was there and he never said he was going to urinate on them.”
Llaryora warned: “But they make us out to be extortionists.”
The finale was led by the Kirchnerist - and accommodator - Gerardo Zamora.
He said it this way: “They've been there for four months and they didn't do anything.
Start governing once and for all
.
There are 50% of the positions vacant.”
Milei, like him, repeats it and demands results from Luis Caputo, which made the minister uneasy.
The President called for it:
he wants there to be some success towards the end of April
.
For this reason, Toto overreacts on social networks and exaggerates his admiration for Milei.
To comply with his boss, the minister accelerated the “liquefaction of savings” with the latest BCRA measures.
The lowering of the rate
punishes small middle class savers
.
As Kirchnerism did before, Caputo now exaggerated with the price-forming companies.
He challenged them and made it public: “You have a high dollar and there are inexplicable prices.”
Then he told them that “they were totally wrong” if they expected a devaluation and swore that there would be no exchange rate jump.
He was emphatic and surprised the “captains” of food: “Make no mistake because the dollar is going to converge downwards.
He is going to unify, but at the official exchange rate
.”
The majority preferred silence.
But everyone thought about the unsustainable combination of incipient inflation in dollars and a vertical drop in sales.
Martín Ticinese - the boss of Quilmes - broke the mold and was encouraged to back down from the minister.
Both were already coming from a previous chicane because Ticinese arrived late because he had a previous meeting with Posse, the head of the minister.
Toto insisted: “They have to eliminate promotions and make prices honest.”
Ticinese - a renowned marketing specialist - refuted the idea and warned: "The problem here is the drop in consumption and the rise in costs for companies."
The leaders of the Chamber of Supermarkets looked for a shortcut and were the ones who proposed to Caputo to open imports.
This is
an old recipe, which never worked, to lower prices
.
But excellent business for supermarkets.
That was said at the tense UIA meeting.
For the first time they criticized a measure, after deifying Milei's policy.
Daniel Funes from Rioja also denounced it at the COPAL meeting with Pablo Lavigne.
The feeling that exists is that there is
a lot of improvisation in the Ministry of Commerce
and the supermarket proposal filled the lack of ideas of its officials.
But Santiago Bausili is against the announcements: the BCRA does not have sufficient reserves and will not provide dollars to buy imports - which are usually for luxury consumption.
On Monday there will be a plenary meeting of COPAL.
There could be a document.
Also next week, an IMF mission commanded by Rodrigo Valdés arrives.
This Thursday there was a summit with the Treasury emissary, Brent Neiman.
Something is cooking.
Clarín
confirmed that Caputo is negotiating
a stabilization plan with Washington with the intention of applying it in May
.
There is a willingness in the Treasury to support Milei, but the bureaucracy has two crucial doubts.
It is written in a “memo” from the IMF.
Thus it says: “The main concern is that the deficit numbers are not sustainable.”
The other, more political: “We are not going to support dollarization in Argentina with a loan.”