Arrogance as state policy and the end of Manuel Adorni

In his resignation letter, presidential spokesman turned Cabinet chief Manuel Adorni accused the press of hounding him with "endless media attacks" and "media operations that have gone to extremes, not just against me but against my wife, my young children, my friends, my family." He then added: "I am a simple citizen who one day wanted to help with a project that is putting Argentina at the top of the world." For someone like Adorni – with a past in the media, who spent his time harassing, attacking and humiliating his former colleagues from the lectern of the press room at the Casa Rosada – to accuse the press, and in a sense plead for mercy for himself and his family, is pretty pathetic. It shows what is, in fact, the truth: Adorni was, as he himself says, a "simple citizen" whose chief merit was being a loyal soldier for Javier Milei and Karina Milei, putting himself at the service of the libertarian political project. With great arrogance too.

Ultimately, he flew close to the sun and believed his own hype – enough to win the Buenos Aires City legislative elections with real authority and he was already trying on the mayor's suit for 2027, eyeing himself as the next replacement for the current post-holder Jorge Macri. The Mileis dreamed of a trifecta – winning the Presidency, the mayoralty of Buenos Aires City and the governorship of Buenos Aires Province – to achieve total hegemony. As time passed and La Libertad Avanza consolidated itself as an electorally competitive force, Adorni ate from the forbidden fruit – and loved it. Just like the Kirchnerites, whom La Libertad Avanza so harshly criticised for abusing state resources and for the impunity with which they committed acts of corruption, elements of Mileismo became entangled in various shady schemes of its own –and enjoyed it.

Adorni's arrogance was the archetypal case. First as spokesman and then as Cabinet chief, he never tired of saying that they were different, that they had not come to plunder the state, that their personal accounts were in order and that they would put an end to the political caste. From the President and his sister on down, there appears to have been a green light for murky dealings, letting members of the ruling coalition enrich themselves, as a kind of reward for putting themselves on the line, or "breaking their backs," to use Adorni's own words. The ‘$LIBRA’ cryptocurrency case, which directly implicates Javier and Karina; the Diego Spagnuolo recordings from the ANDIS case (Argentina's national disability agency), in which Karina and the Menems reportedly appear asking for the already-famous three percent; Leonardo Scatturice's dealings in collusion with presidential advisor Santiago Caputo… several other cases are piling up. Things will not be easy for the libertarians once they're back in the political wilderness.

Beyond the corruption, constant combat with enemies is a deliberate strategy of Javier Milei's government. The famous 'culture war' is nothing more than an attempt to control public debate, mainly taking place on social media, which has proven a very fruitful arena for the government. The venom and hatred directed at the press are the natural consequence of that strategy, given that the media contest that same battle over shaping public opinion. Once again, the Mileis closely resemble the Kirchners in their obsession with total and absolute control of the media ecosystem, and to achieve that they must 'tame' the press. And that brings us back to the notorious official state advertising budget, which this government falsely claims to have eliminated.

Milei and Adorni's political marketing claims that the 'pauta racket' is over – the reality is that the libertarian government has never stopped using the wallet funded by everyone's taxes to buy media loyalty, as well as to punish those who do not fall into line. These budgets were managed on one side by Adorni and on the other by Santiago Caputo and are channelled mainly through state-controlled companies, above all YPF, Aerolíneas Argentinas and Banco Nación. There is also talk of more clandestine distribution channels tied to the reserved funds expenditure made by the SIDE intelligence agency. The La Libertad Avanza government also pressures business groups not to advertise in media outlets with which it has an open conflict, as is the case with Perfil. Pure Kirchnerism.

Adorni took three months to draw up a sworn asset declaration and concoct an alibi that convinced no-one. He went from being a "simple citizen" to living like a member of the caste he denounced, buying properties and flying on private jets to luxury destinations ever since he entered public office. He also went from being a panellist who shared the journalistic trenches with his colleagues to a libertarian mercenary who fiercely attacked his own profession from a position of supposed moral high ground, while behind the scenes controlling the distribution of official advertising to intimidate anyone who dared not fall in line with the government's messaging. After having been an aggressive communicator who built much of his strategy on humiliating his opponents, he now says he suffered greatly from “media attacks.” 

He will now have to face the courts and the rest of his former colleagues without the protection of the state that gave him so much in so little time – his professed devotion to the "ideas of freedom" notwithstanding.