On Friday night, almost Saturday, when officials are supposed to finally enter a relaxing atmosphere, their phones were still activated and uncomfortable questions were piling up on their WhatsApp.
—Are you leaving too? —They consulted Diana Mondino.
The question would have been impossible to raise just a few months ago, when the chancellor, one of the first ministers confirmed after the victory in the November runoff, emerged as one of the key pieces of the Government. The speed of the internal crisis, which threatens officials who seemed untouchable, forced her to answer the cursed question.
Nicolás Posse faced the same question as Mondino just two weeks ago. Milei had just declared on television that the changes would come after the fate of the Base Law was known and her Chief of Staff seized on that phrase to resist and deny her departure that weekend. Within 24 hours I was out.. “Posse is now history,” the libertarian leader said Tuesday. The last snub for the one who sat at the ultra-small Cabinet table, his friend and daily lunch confidant from the times when they worked together at the America Corporation. “With that background we all know that tomorrow we can fly through the air,” says one of the ministers who is not at risk today.
It is not the first time that Mondino appears on the list of officials who can leave. He had several missteps, some unusual, like when he said that the Chinese “are all the same.” On Friday morning Milei accumulated a new complaint about her when, on the way to the Islamic Cultural Center of Palermo – where the chancellor and 19 ambassadors were waiting for him – he learned that, among those summoned, was the charge d’affaires of the Embassy of Palestine. , Alhalabi MA Riyad. Immediately, He asked his driver to turn around.
The President considered that the presence of the Palestinian could be a problem for his unconditional alignment with Israel and vented his anger against the Minister of Foreign Affairs. At noon, even though he was confirmed, he decided not to attend the toast with those accredited by the Casa Rosada for Journalist’s Day, probably so as not to have to give explanations. The agenda of the head of state may suffer unexpected alterations. They had announced that he would not go to the G-7 and, a few hours later, that changed.
Milei’s moods also have spikes. You can go from disappointment to euphoria, or vice versa, in short periods of time.. Perhaps Milei today misses the support of her friend Sandra Pettovello, who has stayed the night at the Olivos Residence when the situation required it. Yesterday, in fact, both were gathered there for long hours. There are not many who access that presidential intimacy. Milei has confessed to an interlocutor that at times he feels alone.
The roles with Pettovello were reversed due to the crisis affecting Human Capital, still with an uncertain outcome. Now it is Milei who must contain her. “She is the best minister in history,” she exaggerated. The official wanted to leave her position several times in recent weeks. “I can’t take it anymore,” she said. She feels a suffocating pressure, from outside and inside. She never realized, perhaps, what it meant to have Social Development, Education, Culture, Work and the ANSeS under the same orbit.
Milei finds herself facing a real dilemma. Already in the Cabinet they quietly admit that, as stated, the Ministry of Human Capital is unmanageable. Disarming it would imply a defeat that those who run the Government are not willing to accept. Pettovello does not even dare to give interviews due to the diversity of topics she handles and about which she could be consulted. Some issues are incomprehensible to him. It is also true that she has stood very strongly against corruption. This has brought him praise and, at the same time, threats to his family.. The wear is evident.
While “cutting jobs”, as Mileism likes to say, Pettovello suffers from the bleeding of his team. Some officials were fired – like Pablo de la Torre, who is accused of withholding food from canteens and spurious dealings related to the payment of bonuses – and others, like her, want to leave. The ministry suffered more than 40 casualties in six months of administration. A record. The last was that of his main advisor, Fernando Szereszevsky, who preferred go on tour with the Paranoid Mice. Literal.
In other areas there are also casualties and reproaches. In the Federal Intelligence Agency, Silvestre Sívori, who responded to Po-sse, left, and Sergio Neiffert, who had good communication with Santiago Caputo, entered. In the Ministry of Science and Technology Alejandro Cosentino resigned and in two other secretariats there is noise. The changes coincide with voices that previously operated strongly in the media in favor of La Libertad Avanza and that today rise against it. Carolina Píparo, Milei’s bet in the last election for the province of Buenos Aires, has just said that the space is “a swarm of violent, ignorant and intolerant people.” The libertarian crisis also devoured the head of the Deputies bloc, Oscar Zago. There are other annoying deputies. For now, they are silent. They imitate Victoria Villarruel, who could be a very important media sword and who, due to differences with Karina Milei, adopted a low profile.
Many believe that the arrival of Federico Sturzenegger to a relevant position could, at least, alleviate the situation. Milei sped up the appointment of him and then cooled him down. Luis Caputo, the Minister of Economy, remains attentive to these movements. He had clashes with Sturzenegger in the Macri era.
The president is thinking about a renewal in case the Base Law is approved by the Senate. Guillermo Francos, the chief of staff, seems very optimistic. Not so Milei, who continues to see Congress as a rat’s nest.
That feeling worsened on Tuesday, when Kirchnerism, the UCR and We Make the Federal Coalition voted together in the Chamber of Deputies and achieved half a sanction for a project that promotes improvements for retirees and a new update. Milei has already announced that, if the Senate approves it, he will veto the initiative. In passing, he called the legislators “fiscal degenerates.”
The political tension moved to the markets. There have been two weeks in a row of turbulence. Milei told her officials that it will pass and recovery will come. According to Caputo, the worst is over. We will have to see it.
The current administration took office on December 10 with a country risk of 1,935 points. It lowered it to 1,148 on April 22, but on Friday it closed at 1,582, an advance of 20.4% in the five business days that passed in June. During the week, global bonds (those issued in dollars) plummeted, on average, 9%. The drop reflects that the market is beginning to get impatient. Financial dollars have risen 5.5% so far this month, after climbing 18% in May in the case of cash with settlement. The lowest gap between the official dollar and the CCL was 23% on March 18. Today it is at 46%.
Milei blames the opposition, a trick that has been working. The image numbers continue to bring pleasant surprises amid the adjustment in spending and the decline in activity. The watershed line in society is: hope versus anger. Hope, almost, prevails.
The President awaits a change in climate. This week the inflation index for May will be known and an encouraging streak will be confirmed: in December, the Indec marked 25.5%; in January, 20.6%; in February, 13.2; in March, 11%; in April, 8.8%; May’s would be below 5%. The Government wants to believe that the approval of the Bases Law in the Senate will be coupled with this news. And that, in a few days, the IMF will disburse the 800 million dollars needed to cover the next debt maturity. It is not salvation. Just an oasis.
