Javier Milei is Argentina’s President because in late 2023 most voters felt that, unlike the standard-issue politicians standing for election, once in office he would tear up the rule book and do things his own way. In many people’s view, his sheer nuttiness was just what a country addicted to failure needed for it to break away from the self-destructive order it was trapped in. In those now distant days, it was assumed that what the country most needed was a strong dose of eccentricity and that a man with unkempt hair who communed with cloned dogs and went on about Austrian economic sages and arcane cabalistic traditions, could be relied upon to provide it.
For over a year, it seemed that they were right. Brandishing his totemic chainsaw, Milei brought inflation sharply down by hacking away at public spending and, with deregulation czar Federico Sturzenegger, set about eliminating the plethora of bureaucratic restrictions that for decades had hog-tied business enterprises big and small. Though serious investors remained unconvinced that Argentina really had said goodbye to the ruinous, and inherently corrupt, corporatist dispensation that had done her so much harm, signs that some at least were about to put money on the world’s most notorious financial deadbeat were beginning to appear.
But then, little more than a week ago, alarm bells started ringing loud and clear. While Milei himself seems genuinely uninterested in material luxuries, rumours of corruption in high places, spurred by what sounds like the recording of a conversation between someone and Diego Spagnuolo – in which the recently sacked head of the department charged with catering to the needs of disabled people accuses Milei’s sister Karina and one of her top advisors, Eduardo ‘Lule’ Menem, of receiving large bribes from pharmaceutical companies that were looking for, and getting, juicy government contracts – suddenly started swirling about. Shocked, but not that surprised, by what was happening, many lost no time in coming to the conclusion that Milei’s government was behaving much like its notoriously crooked predecessor.
Faithful libertarians say all this was cooked up by fiscal degenerates who want to restore the extraordinarily corrupt old order in which they made piles of money. They want people to believe that, with elections fast approaching, the Kirchnerites are resorting to “fake news” in an effort to unseat a government that wants to consign them to oblivion. Unfortunately for Milei, their somewhat half-hearted defence of his sister’s rectitude does not seem that persuasive. What is more, the alleged involvement in the affair of relatives of the late Carlos Menem, a president who in his day was regarded as corrupt – though less so than Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner – does not help at all.
Millions who voted for Milei less than two years ago may have assumed that he would immediately replace the old political class or “caste” with something far cleaner and much more efficient but, needless to say, that was a pipe dream. To get down to work, the newcomer to politics had to surround himself with men and women who had a fair idea of how to run a government. It was inevitable that among them there would be many who remained firmly attached to the old ways. Weeding them out will not be easy but it would appear that Milei – who feels nothing but contempt for all that political wheeling and dealing – has not made much of an effort to distinguish between office-holders who are scrupulously honest and those who are accustomed to demanding kickbacks from businessmen.
To make the situation he faces far worse than would otherwise be the case, Milei is determined to protect Karina from anyone criticising her just as she protected him from an abusive father when he was a child. He rewarded her for what she did then by making her his chief-of-staff despite her lack of political experience. She has played the role he gave her with ostentatious gusto by micromanaging the Libertad Avanza party that was set up to support him and hitting back hard at anyone who dares to tangle with her.
Whether or not Karina is on the take, as many are now saying, is an open question that, sooner or later, the courts will have to answer, but even if it turns out that she is innocent of any wrongdoing, her mere presence at the top of the ruling hierarchy could be enough to bring the government down.
To judge from the opinion polls, Milei continues to be the most popular politician in the land, but Karina is ranked among the least appreciated; her rating is on a par with that of Máximo Kirchner, who owes his prominence entirely to his mother. People simply do not like the Karina who appears on their television screens and there seems to be little she can do about it. What’s more, her vigorous attempts to dismantle Mauricio Macri’s PRO party, which she sees as a rival to her own outfit, have weakened her brother’s government by making it impossible for him to form a broad-based coalition held together by a strong desire to make Argentina a “normal” capitalist country in which the rule of law is taken for granted and freedom of expression is respected.
Were it not for Milei’s evident determination to subordinate everything else to his sister’s feelings, he would kindly ask her, and her less trustworthy favourites, to take a backseat for a while so he could refashion the government by removing its more vulnerable members. Like Caesar’s wife, the President’s sister must be above suspicion. Milei’s many enemies regard his relationship with her as his weakest spot and they will continue to exploit it
Back in 2023, Milei and his supporters – many of them opportunists who were far more impressed by his poll ratings than by his exotic economic ideas about balancing the budget and reducing waste – imagined they would never need allies that were disinclined to grovel before them. This led them to make a major strategic mistake. Milei may have won the opening rounds of the “cultural battle” he is waging by convincing people that trying to solve economic problems by printing huge amounts of banknotes is stupid, but unless he gets far more politicians on side, the changes he is ramming through could prove to be short-lived.
For Argentina, which not that long ago barely escaped from being devastated by a hyperinflationary firestorm, returning to business as usual would have tragic consequences.
Comments