Every now and then, in public, she decides to make a splash in her understated way, to make it clear that her profile is different from the President’s. And now Victoria Villarruel has done it again – just when the spotlights are about to focus on her as she “hosts” Javier Milei at the Legislative Assembly to open normal Congress sessions.
Like her previous onslaught against France, obliging super-sister Karina Milei to apologise to the French Embassy, now her excuse is the Supreme Court’s ruling against Donald Trump’s tariffs in the United States.
“Without national employment and production, there can be no real government policies. Without industry, we pass to depending on China, a Communist country, to the utmost. For Trump, the United States comes first, for me, Argentina comes first. Totally opening up the economy and freeing imports only favours dependence on China and deepens economic and social emergencies,” wrote the veep in a post on social media last week.
Villarruel has decided to add an economic leg to her classic nationalism on the political and cultural fronts, a sort of protectionism of the productive sector that clashes head-on with the policies of the government where she remains first in the line of presidential succession, it should be recalled.
Nor is her pronunciamiento manifesto any coincidence. It comes as Milei’s clashes with businessmen hit by the competition with imported products, above all from China. Paolo Rocca, of Techint, and Javier Madanes Quintanilla, of Fate and Aluar, were the most notorious, never mind the textile magnates demonised by Economy Minister Luis ‘Toto’ Caputo.
Beyond the differences between the President and his Veep, which have been publicised to the point of becoming hackneyed (it remains to be seen how they will be exposed this Sunday), the government is displeased by how she has again shaken off her markers.
“She has been free in these past two years to take the path which seems best to her. She has clearly adopted a stance which does not coincide with our interests nor those of the Argentines. We could not care less,” declared Cabinet Chief Manuel Adorni in a radio interview, confirming what has been known since practically the start of the La Libertad Avanza government: that Villarruel is out in the cold.
The government did not even let Villarruel participate in the manoeuvre ejecting Kirchnerism from the helm of the Senate where she presides.
Purple officials have interpreted Villarruel’s stance as part of her strategy to seek a new political umbrella, since Milei will be seeking re-election next year with another running-mate.
In some government offices they believe her winks to local industrialists to exceed merely economic concerns. They suspect her of seeking financing for her own political launch, also connecting her to alleged bids to destabilise the government, due to her meetings with members of the “red circle” establishment, the Church, trade unionists and political leaders.
The latest known example was Villarruel’s visit to La Rioja, where she met Peronist Governor Ricardo Quintela, who forms part of the small group of provincial governors rejecting labour reform.
From the province Martín Menem (Villarruel’s lower house counterpart as the Chamber of Deputies Speaker) seeks to govern, it was leaked that the Veep is trying to form part of a broader space.
Quintela followed his recent talks with Villarruel by telling a friendly interviewer: “This government cannot last until December 10, 2027.” Will the Vice-President disown such a phrase? For sure.
Within a Balkanised Peronism there are non-Kirchnerite sectors which even chase fantasies of a Villarruel candidacy. They are not the only ones. She listens, dialogues and prepares her next coup. A coup de force, of course.
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