Milei Says Vice President Has ‘No Influence’ on Argentina Policy
(Bloomberg) -- Argentine President Javier Milei lambasted his vice president one year after they won a historic election, exposing a deep fracture inside the executive branch and apparently settling a heated power struggle between his influential sister and second-in-command.
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Vice President Victoria Villarruel no longer participates in cabinet meetings, “has no influence whatsoever in decision-making” and only speaks with the president over “what’s institutionally necessary to carry out our roles,” Milei told local TV channel LN+ on Wednesday night.
“She’s a lot closer to what she calls high politics, which is what we call the political caste,” Milei added in a dig at his No. 2, who also presides over the Senate. Milei’s campaign platform revolved around taking down the caste, his term for political corruption and elitism.
Villarruel has spent the last year embroiled in a fierce battle with Karina Milei, the president’s sister who holds a top government role, for influence over the libertarian leader’s efforts to drastically overhaul Argentina’s economy. In a March interview, Villarruel claimed that Milei was a “poor little ham” sandwiched between herself and his sister.
Milei’s frigid relationship with Villarruel has been an open secret in Buenos Aires government circles for months. But the president hadn’t openly acknowledged just how much her role had diminished until now, and he used the interview to make clear who’s boss.
“My sister, the so-called pastry chef or whatever they called her — as if that were a crime — who doesn’t know anything about politics, in six months created a political party,” he said in the Wednesday interview. “Look at where the pastry chef got us.”
Disputes between Argentine presidents and their VPs aren’t new. Milei’s predecessor, Alberto Fernandez, often sparred publicly with Vice President Cristina Kirchner, and the political infighting only worsened as the country’s economic crisis deepened.
What’s different this time is that Milei is freezing Villarruel out so early into his term, and at a time when he’s enjoying a string of economic and political victories.
Villarruel, a polished lawyer and activist, made a name for herself denouncing the crimes of leftist guerrilla groups during the right-wing dictatorship that seized power in 1976. She often focuses on more traditional priorities of the Argentine right, championing cases against abortion, LGBTQ education in schools and prison terms she regards as too lax.
Villarruel drew Milei’s ire recently when she met in Madrid with Maria Estela Martinez de Peron, who was president of Argentina from 1974 to 1976 and succeeded Juan Domingo Peron — the founding father of Argentina’s Peronist movement. After the trip, Villarruel unveiled a statue in her honor in the Senate, which Milei criticized.
“It’s her house,” Milei said, referring to the Senate. “You surely won’t find that in mine.”
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