Javier Milei and Victoria Villarruel have, or had, an agreement.
Say to each other's face what bothers the other: what they would prefer not to hear.
It may seem ironic in the bond between two people who met on Twitter and who interacted for a long time behind the cell phone screen until one day they decided to have a coffee and look into each other's eyes.
But that's how it works.
Or it worked.
The relationship has been damaged for a long time, even though not even a hundred days of administration have passed.
In the presidential circle they suspect that she has a parallel agenda that often does not respect the guidelines of her boss.
And those around the vice consider that crazy conspiracy theories are being woven at the Olivos Residence.
These differences,
notorious and dangerous
in a country with too many traumatic antecedents in the coexistence of the first president and that of his second, have given rise to suggestive speculations.
A little over a week ago, Milei and Villarruel met at the Casa Rosada.
It was a date alone that did not transcend.
The President received her in his office.
They remained together, without anyone interrupting them, for about an hour and a half.
At least two officials crossed paths with the vice president when she was walking through the Gallery of Busts in search of a car that was waiting for her on the esplanade of the Government House.
They realized that she was coming from Milei's office, although they made no reference to the matter.
“Better not to ask when things are so hot,” said one of them.
In that conversation, both tried to resume the pact of speaking to each other without a filter.
It wasn't like the old days, when the two of them walked on the plain, but there was something of that.
He reproached her for several things;
She too.
The anger comes from before the inauguration.
The milleistas maintain that Villarruel could not digest that the ministries of Security and Defense have been left in the hands of Patricia Bullrich and Luis Petri and that since then his behavior has been oscillating.
This is how, among others, Karina Milei thinks, the permanent custody of her brother.
The vice's confidants claim that the head of state's inner circle did not like that she met with Mauricio Macri in November and that is why they are punishing her.
They swear that she never saw him again, but that that meeting was enough for those who don't love her to send out messages that have nothing to do with her fidelity to her project.
Face to face, in the Casa Rosada, those issues almost passed us by.
The talk began with what at that time was the debate of the moment: the salaries of legislators.
Villarruel had publicly defended the increase, which in his case represented a jump from $3.7 million gross in January to $5.5 million in February.
Milei told her that she thought it was outrageous.
“Argentina has 60 percent poor people,” she stated.
The vice president did not back down: she replied that a driver with seniority in Parliament earned more than senators.
“I'm sorry
,” the President insisted.
Villarruel upped the ante: he conveyed that if the legislators were not well paid, there was a risk of allowing Congress to be taken over by the corrupt or the rich, and he argued that the catering for the marathon sessions was even reduced.
The head of the Kirchnerist bloc, José Mayans, could attest to the fact that, in front of several senators, one long day in the Senate, he said in front of everyone:
“Are you going to feed us, Vicky, or won't they let you?
“Bring a snack or something.”
Milei asked Villarruel to delay the session as long as possible to discuss the DNU in the Senate.
He wanted to buy time towards the Pact of May 25.
It did not happen and her disciples hurled insults at her.
In the Senate they let it be known that
she had no room to do anything else
and revealed what they really think: that Villarruel is not willing for the upper house to not function.
This was reflected in the video that she, in a hurry, recorded on Thursday night: she said that Congress is an independent power and that her goal is not to become “a Cristina Kirchner.”
The recording became known shortly after the Senate rejected the DNU, a very extensive project with more than 300 modifications that promotes a reform of the State and a profound deregulation of the economy.
The day before, the office that responds to the leadership of the Executive had released a statement in which it expressed its “concern” about the unilateral decision of some sectors of the political class” whom it accused of acting “to the detriment of the future of the Argentines.”
Journalism, unanimously, interpreted that it was a dart towards the figure of the vice president.
As if data were missing on the tension that is felt in the ruling party environment when talking about the pairing that swept the runoff, on Friday the Cabinet meeting was suspended.
The presidential spokesman, Manuel Adorni, denied the short circuits.
Enough for the rest of the Government spokesmen to try to lower the foam.
There are those who interpret that the reaction was due to the fact that the duo
had been trapped in the logic of “the caste” fights
.
An unforgivable sin for the story.
The DNU now went to the Chamber of Deputies.
Three things can happen.
One: that it be treated and rejected (in that case it would be without effect).
Two: that it be approved, which would give the Government a victory because the DNU requires the approval of a single Chamber for its definitive implementation.
Three: that it never be discussed on the premises, which would make it remain in effect in fact, as happened with more than a hundred that Alberto Fernández sent.
This option became, today, the least tiring for the thousands of people.
At the same time, the ruling party is preparing a package of decrees and projects that emerge from the Omnibus Law that foundered in Congress.
The idea is that legislators are obliged to meet without restraint and say yes or no to the initiatives of La Libertad Avanza.
Milei emphasizes that the opposition wants to undermine the Government.
“If they don't approve anything, we will expose them as many times as necessary,” he says.
On Thursday, for now, no blacklist disseminated from official accounts appeared, as had happened when the Omnibus Law failed.
A sign that they are more inclined to negotiate, even with a sector of radicalism.
Although there was an event in the last few hours that set off the alarm: the radical senator for Chubut, Edith Terenzi - who voted against the DNU - denounced that “the trolls from La Rosada” threatened her with death.
The Government does not stop monitoring the social mood.
Milei came to power with 56% of the votes that she obtained in the second round.
From the moment he entered his office he understood that this flow had to be risked in pursuit of a fierce and unprecedented adjustment.
I took it for granted that this would lead to a loss of popularity.
But his image, despite the tremor generated by the devaluation and the liberalization of prices, remains strong.
For many traditional politicians, strikingly strong.
Those who watch over the President's marketing explain that this has to do with the fact that citizens continue to think that the economic crisis is not the fault of the current administration and that Milei is the
outsider
who came to rescue politics from
the same old ones.
How long can these slogans last?
How much will Argentines resist the deterioration of salaries and a recession that is already felt strongly, but will be worse in the coming months?
These are questions that the system of power asks itself.
From the economic establishment to the Government itself, while Milei buys time and implores that the decline in inflation collapses in the short term and opens a thread of light in the midst of so much darkness.