Karina evidently shares her brother’s contempt for misguided people whose ideas and values do not coincide with his own

All politicians have their little foibles which, they hope, will help endear them to the local electorate, but from the days of the more outrageous Roman emperors, few have boasted as many as Javier Milei. He has taken eccentricity to a new level, not just by performing in public as a heavy-metal rockstar, engaging in philosophical dialogues with the cloned dogs he says are his children and boasting of his exploits as a master of tantric sex, but also by putting together a syncretic religious cult that only he can understand in a country in which, until fairly recently, presidents had to be, or pretend to be, devout Roman Catholics.

None of this has affected Milei’s image. Even his enemies take it for granted that his flamboyant nuttiness is a strictly personal matter so he should be judged only by his performance in office. However, there are some things about the President that many do find disturbing. One is his habit of subjecting those who for some reason annoy him to a torrent of scatological abuse of the kind habitually voiced by fascists and Communists. Another is his emotional dependence on his sister Karina, a lady who, before being appointed presidential chief-of-staff and leader of the ruling La Libertad Avanza party, made ends meet by baking cakes and telling fortunes as a reader of tarot cards.

In itself, that does not tell us very much: in today’s world there are millions of bright university graduates who, like Karina, have to earn a living in ways the well-off might find demeaning, but few think that, by themselves, such activities can help prepare an ambitious young woman for high office unless they are followed by several years of politically relevant work.

Karina evidently shares her brother’s contempt for misguided people whose ideas and values do not coincide with his own. She does not see them as ape-like creatures but as threats and reacts accordingly. To judge from her behaviour, she is determined to prevent anyone that for some reason she dislikes from acquiring an influential position in the administration she runs. This, presumably, is why she has it in for Milei’s top strategist, Santiago Caputo, against whom she is waging a bureaucratic war that has begun to damage the government’s reputation among people who do not take much interest in political infighting but are upset by stories about what is going on in the Pink House and its vicinities.

Another upstart in Karina’s sights is Senator Patricia Bullrich who currently enjoys a higher rating in the opinion polls than Milei himself. It would seem that, from Karina’s perspective, by letting this happen, Bullrich committed an unforgivable sin, as indeed did Victoria Villarruel two years earlier when she attracted more public support than her boss; to teach the vice-president a lesson, Karina made it clear that she was no longer a member of the inner circle. However, much as she would have liked to deprive her of the position she won as brother Javier’s running-mate in the 2023 general elections, there was no legal way she could go about it.

Karina wants the party she dominates to go it alone so it can paint Argentina a garish shade of violet, which presumably is her favourite colour. From her point of view, Mauricio Macri’s PRO is far more dangerous than any Kirchnerite or other Peronist faction; being better organised and having many experienced and battle-hardened members, it would not remain a junior coalition partner for very long. In contrast, though La Libertad Avanza does include some worthy individuals who were attracted by Milei’s desire to transform Argentina into a capitalist powerhouse by breaking down the barriers to growth that had been set up by Peronists and others of a similar outlook, it also has an excessive number of opportunists, bootlicking toadies, publicity-seekers and addicts to conspiratorial theories who contribute nothing useful to the free-market cause.

Milei despises politics. He sees it as downstream from economics, perhaps because it cannot be summed up in neat mathematical equations. Instead, it is an untidy business in which subjective feelings, mysterious qualities such as charisma and alliances with untrustworthy rivals liable to betray you play a major part. This no doubt is why he decided to let his sister take charge of domestic political affairs so he could dedicate himself full-time to reshaping the country’s economy and preaching the libertarian gospel to the rest of the world.

Were politics as unimportant as Milei would like to think, allowing his sister to behave much like a president, with him as her economy minister, might have made sense, but Karina’s involvement in a series of episodes that have given rise to charges of corruption in high places is not benefitting him at all. Here, presidents have to watch their every step; unless they do, after ending their term they will get mugged by lawyers waiting for a chance to bring them down.

A cannier operator than Karina would have warned Milei that it would be better for him to steer clear of dealers in crypto currencies, keep a closer eye on what was happening in some government departments dealing with sensitive issues, tell Cabinet Chief Manuel Adorni that he should step aside until he had made his financial dealings more presentable and refrain from mean-minded attempts to punish investigative journalists by trying to ruin the career prospects of their relatives. But Karina did none of these things, perhaps because she was too naïve and well-meaning to question well-heeled individuals who wanted to come into contact with the her brother and too inexperienced to realise that in Argentina even a minor slip-up when in office can end up having unpleasant legal consequences for former presidents.

As things stand, Milei remains in a relatively comfortable position. This is not only because at long last the economy is showing signs of picking up, but also because he has yet to confront head-on any serious political rival, though Bullrich could easily become one by presenting herself as being just as determined as he is to put an end to Argentina’s overlong economic decadence but far more willing to do whatever it takes to reduce an alarming level of corruption that the government seems prepared to tolerate and, while about it, continue to give priority to law and order.

related news