Although he continues to unleash some moments that cast doubt on his decision, Javier Milei seems to have assumed that he leads a minority government and that this condition forces him to work hard to obtain the support he needs to get the laws out of Congress.
It is a very important change with respect to what happened in his first months in the Government, when he sent to the Chamber of Deputies a huge law that the La Libertad Avanza legislators themselves were unaware of.
It is obvious, but perhaps it should be said: these luxuries can be provided by governments that have parliamentary majorities, and not by those that do not have important blocs of their own.
With that failure in his suitcase, Milei opted for the more traditional negotiation and called on the governors to discuss a new Omnibus Law project, which the Government intends to convert into a commission opinion to take it back to Deputies and advance with its Pact. of May.
It is clear that, in addition to the governors, they will have to sit down and talk about this bill with the legislators themselves, many of whom do not respond to provincial leaders.
The defeat in the Senate this week, although it was a painful shock, opened an opportunity for the Government.
There it became evident that there is a very broad sector of radicalism - the party most hated by Milei - that is willing to support the libertarian president, even to defend a DNU like number 70, a procedure that clashes with some of the issues he defended. historically the UCR.
The President noticed this detail, and that is why he ordered to praise the radical senators in a statement issued on Thursday night, and that opening continued with the meeting that the Minister of the Interior, Guillermo Francos, had with the head of the Deputies block. radicals, Rodrigo de Loredo, who had aligned himself with the four governors who came out to mark differences with the president of the National Committee of the UCR, Martín Lousteau, who voted to reject the DNU together with Pablo Blanco from Fuegian.
Radicalism functions as a confederation of provincial parties and Milei, if he intends to do so, can take advantage of this situation, as does any president who realizes that he can get something from a sector that until a few months ago was his adversary and that will continue to be an adversary in the next campaign.
This new path that Milei is taking is, as we know, quite difficult.
It forces you to do things you don't want to do and to admit costs that no one wants to pay.
But it is the only one left to minority governments: to build power where they do not yet have it.
To do so, Milei will also have to give power to officials who still do not have it today.
The tools to negotiate have to be in the hands of the negotiators.
If that doesn't happen, any conversation becomes endless torture.
To put it another way: Milei can continue ruling on Twitter, but politics requires that someone on her team also manage WhatsApp.
There are no guarantees that this new provision by the President will serve to pass the laws that he wants, or that he considers key for his Government.
It is a very difficult bet, because the main opposition, Kirchnerism, has the largest blocks in both Chambers and it has already become clear that Cristina Kirchner is willing to assert that number.
It can be said, however, that this turn will serve to give the President more consistent strength than that provided by likes on social networks.
If you dialogue with governors and legislators, in addition to promoting the laws you prefer, you can try to block the initiatives that come from Kirchnerism and that, as could be seen in the defeat of DNU 70/2023 in the Senate, can also seduce the injured by presidential mistreatment.
Among other things, the conversations can help you save your DNU in the Chamber of Deputies.
In that case, there are two possible paths: the maximum is to get the votes to approve the decree.
But if that does not happen, she can try to ensure that the Lower House never deals with the rule and resort to the strategy that Cristina applied with Alberto Fernández on dozens of occasions: not endorsing the decrees but not overturning them either.
It's something.
■