Emboldened by the return of Donald Trump to the White House, Argentine President Javier Milei has discursively violated migrants, women and sexual diversities in his speech in Davos. While the far-right travels the world, he leaves his signature in charge of Victoria Villarruel, the vice president with whom he maintains rising tensions but not because of ideology. Like the American tycoon, Milei only seems willing to maintain alliances with those who are subordinate and do not show their own game.
The virulent content that Milei has had in the world economic forum against any minority and stating that “wokism is the cancer to be removed” was not isolated, it came from a controversy unleashed in Argentina by a threatening phrase that he used to defend Elon Musk for his Nazi salute. He promised to “persecute the left-handed sons of bitches to the last corner” and recommended that they tremble. A phrase that he posted on the social network X with reminiscences of the last dictatorship and that includes all those who do not have conservative and elitist thinking.
Denialism
Vice President Villarruel, who is pleased to have moved the political discussion in Argentina to the right, has a denialist agenda that vindicates the role of the military in the years of lead. Valeria Di Croce, author of the book Milei’s ark, tells elDiario.es that the president has incorporated this issue into his management policies. “Milei, in his management of power, is appropriating the agendas that made up the heterogeneity of his La Libertad Avanza leaders, making it clear that only he can execute them. Let’s think what happens with the dismantling of memory spaces and massive layoffs in the Human Rights Secretariat: Villarruel’s agenda is being carried out.”
Di Croce adds: “Villarruel was president of the Center for Legal Studies on Terrorism and its Victims (which was born in 2006 with one objective: if the military went to the dock, then the militants of leftist groups would also sit). Within the right that makes up the ruling party, she considers herself a patriot and her agenda is about complete memory.”
The brawls between Milei and Villarruel are dragging on. The vice president was left aside on defense and security issues, key to her pro-military agenda. The defender of the military family shares with her boss that she is pro-life and anti-abortion, also opposed to teaching sexual and reproductive education in schools and intolerant of sexual diversities. Milei already said it in Davos: “The LGBT agenda is promoted, wanting to impose on us that women are men and men are women only if that is how they perceive themselves and say nothing about when a man disguises himself as a woman and kills his rival in a ring. boxing.”
However, when Villarruel is not aligned in everything with Milei, that is interpreted as a kind of conspiracy. Sociologist Roberto Bacman, director of the Center for Public Opinion Studies (CEOP), tells elDiario.es that fighting with number one usually wears down number two. “That initial pact for her to have other political powers on defense issues was broken and she was only left to be the President of the Senate, that is, her legislative role. Villarruel represents a nationalist right with populist touches. He does not participate in cabinet meetings, he is not at the small table. That small table is made up of Milei, Karina Milei and Santiago Caputo. Villarruel showed his own profile in his public appearances and his fights with number one impacted his approval. Her positive image dropped five points, today it is around 42%, while Milei has a positive image of 48%.”
The vice president demanded a salary increase for legislators and, faced with Milei’s rejection, she extended the freezing of allowances until March 31. Milei has told her the worst: that she belongs “to the caste”, because her demand for an increase contradicts a government that raises the chainsaw to public spending. The delay in Villarruel’s decision aroused criticism from officials aligned with the president such as Patricia Bullrich, with whom the vice president has had a tense relationship since she was appointed head of Security. “If you want to serve the Homeland, as an Argentine, I ask you to take care of stopping the crazy and imminent salary increase of the Senate of the Nation,” said Bullrich.
Villarruel’s defensive argument is the following: with her vote she broke the tie in favor of Milei in the crucial vote on the Bases Law, essential for the draconian adjustment project that she has been carrying out for a year, when she arrived at the Casa Rosada.
Karina
Villarruel’s friction with the presidential sister, whom Javier Milei calls “the boss,” responds to the vice president’s own political pretensions. These days, Villarruel points out that Karina seeks to “intervene” the Senate, the only refuge of power that she preserves. In February, the Upper House must vote on its internal authorities and the Milei brothers are looking for someone close to them to occupy the position of provisional president, who enters the line of succession.
“Milei leaves her aside in terms of not growing as a political figure, not overshadowing her, very much like Trump,” says Valeria Di Croce. “Villarruel always builds his political career based on her. So, it is logical that given the supposed growth of Villarroel’s figure, Milei does the same as Trump in the United States, tries to lower his profile by marking the differences. I see it as something natural. If you think about what happened to (Diana) Mondino (she was fired as chancellor), anyone who raises their profile beyond Millei’s figure is going to be attacked by the ecosystem closest to the president. Therefore, it is no coincidence that the circle, the iron triangle, as he says, which are Millei, Karina and Caputo, never raise their profile beyond him. In other words, they are people who are going to empower him, but they are never going to question him.”
That logic works in mirror with Trump. Milei spoke this week before the world’s powerful groups and showed himself aligned with the once-occupied White House and the global neoconservative agenda. His phrases against wokism, gender ideology, feminism, equality and abortion are carbon copies of what the American extreme right has been expressing.
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