He was expelled from the government because of a The alleged infidelity of the brothers Javier and Karina Miley Who never tires of denying, Victoria Villarroel finds herself increasingly isolated. As in stories of medieval knights, today’s Senate Presidency is the terraced tower of a castle in which the Vice President spends her days as a political prisoner of the government she helped build.
The isolation has deepened in recent days with the resignation of Guillermo Francos. And in Villarroel’s more intimate environment, they realize that with the sudden departure of the now former chief of staff, the vice president has lost her last interlocutor in the executive branch.
But still the light flashes in the middle of the darkest night Diego Santelli’s appointment as the new Minister of the Interior opens a window of hope. “There is a good relationship with Diego, they have known each other since they were national representatives,” he said. Nation A person with permanent access to the Vice President’s Office on the first floor of the Legislative Mansion.
It is true that both leaders They shared the House of Representatives for two yearsuntil Villarroel became Miley’s vice president on December 10, 2023. Those were the times when they sat together on the benches at the back of the venue and were Two marginal votes And even ridicule by majority forces.
Moreover, the first team of collaborators that accompanied Villarroel upon his landing in the Senate was filled with leaders and officials whom their internal rivals described as “santelsistas,” also from the Casa Rosada at the dawn of government, when belonging to the Pro was a bad word and synonymous with “the damned political class.”
In fact, the Vice President’s right-hand man at the time was the current National MP. Guillermo MontenegroWho entered Pro with help Federico PinedoBut it joined the space led by Santilli in the middle of the last decade. Soon after, in 2022, the lawyer who is today a member of the Libertarian Body of the Chamber of Deputies, will end up joining the Democratic Party of Buenos Aires Province as Secretary General, when Villarroel was party president.
Montenegro fell into disgrace over issues that were not at all clear in the administration soon after and was expelled from the Senate President’s inner circle, even though he held no specific position, at the dawn of 2024. From then on, Officials fell one by one They arrived from the hand of Montenegro and they are They are “accused” of being “santillistas” or of belonging to Pro.
In the process that was David Cohen He was forced to leave the Directorate of Institutional Relations. I followed the same path Diego HajjPublications Directorate, when the Vice-President decided to renew her team and carried out a fierce, albeit silent, purge campaign, the main victim of which was the so-called “Villareolin”, a group of unconditional people led by Juan Martin DonatoDirector of Citizen Services.
With the exception of Cohen, who is considered a trusted man and has a close relationship with Santelli, the rest of those dismissed do not appear to have had or have a direct connection to the still-continuing National MP, so it is not clear how these dismissals could affect the Vice President’s relationship with the future Minister of the Interior.
Intuitively, Santilli does not appear to be an enemy to be feared by Villarroel, although one of the central tasks of the political portfolio that Colorado will assume will be to coordinate actions and negotiate support in both chambers of Congress. This is the task that Casa Rosada took over from the Vice President some time ago.
presence Nadia Marquezthe senator-elect for Neuquén who will take her seat on December 10, and most importantly, A direct relationship with Karina Miley and the Menem cousins (Martin and Eduardo), enemies of Villarroel.
They see on the sand table on the first floor of the Senate Marquis to A competitor to take into consideration more than Patricia Bullrich, Despite the fact that the Minister has already donned the suit of the future president of the ruling bloc in the Senate, almost from the same night of October 26, she began crowding the phones of lawmakers with the aim of expanding the libertarian seat and concluding agreements with extremists and regionalists to try to reach a majority of at least 37 votes that would guarantee the passage of laws for the government.
Those around Marquez deny this -Although they do not completely rule it out- The current representative aspires to assume the interim presidency, It has also been reported in various media and they confirm that this place can be occupied Augustin CoutoSenator-elect of Tierra del Fuego.
Those who know Koto describe him as a very capable person, but also completely unpredictable. However, this historian, the head of the provincial legislator who headed the list of senators in the southernmost provinces, is a man Miley fanWhich he calls “Supreme Commander” and “saw” He threatens to challenge Villarroel in the administrative management of the Senate.
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