“I won’t pay for the barbecue with these salaries, heh.”joked a member of the Cabinet who took part in the conference call at the President’s Olivos villa this Monday evening. Javier Milei, who brought together his cabinet and his closest team of aides to offer a Christmas toast as he begins a year in which the government aims to implement necessary reforms “Shield Change” what he plans to do for Argentina.
Guests began arriving at 8:30 p.m. They passed through the Villate Street entrance of the presidential residence and were taken to the “Quincho,” where a table was set up for guests to dine beginning at 9 p.m. tried meat and salads and listened to the president’s speech. At the end of this edition, the meeting continued in the room where the President was also present on September 18, 2024. LLA MPs and “allies” were allowed to be receivedwho protected a presidential veto of a raise for retirees, but who had to “swipe his debit card” through a Posnet to pay for dinner.
Before the meeting began, Milei gave each member of his cabinet a copy of economist Walter Block’s book “Defending the Indefensible.” There was a family photo in which each guest was holding the publication of “Anarcho-capitalist who shares his obsession with privatization and non-violence.”
The ruling party explained that, unlike the meeting where participants had to “pay” for the meal out of their own pockets, this Monday evening replicated the dinner of December 26, 2024, where Milei “closed the year” with his ministers. On that occasion he had been the speaker at the time Manuel Adorni the one who was responsible for circulating a “selfie” that showed him with a pure smile with the Libertarian leader and the rest of the members of the Cabinet – some of them already outside the executive branch, such as Guillermo Francos or Gerardo Werthein.
“It’s the final dinner of every year.”explained the qualified source consulted, who was pleased about an imminent salary increase for senior officials – which also includes secretaries and undersecretaries – that would end the freeze imposed by Milei himself in December 2023. This flattening of the salary pyramid has meant that a minister with, for example, a ceremonial head and more than 20 years in the state earns less.
In any case, the President was accompanied by his sister this Monday Karina Mileithe Chief of Staff himself and the ministers Alejandra Monteoliva (Security), Carlos Presti (Defense), Diego Santilli (Ministry of the Interior), Pablo Quirno (Chancellery), Luis Caputo (Economy), Federico Rumpfenegger (Deregulation), Sandra Pettovello (Human Capital), Mario Lugones (Health) and Mariano Cúneo Libarona (Justice). The presidential advisor also met in Olivos Santiago Caputothe chairman of the Chamber of Deputies, Martin Menem, and the leader of the La Libertad Avanza bloc in the Senate, Patricia Bullrich.
The president gave everyone a book: He chose “Defending the Indefensible” by economist Walter Block.
Some officials, such as Quirno himself and Pettovello, were there Rafael Grossi, Director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), but also the government-sponsored candidate for Secretary General of the United Nations.
But dinner at Olivos isn’t just for executives Take stock of a year in which LLA achieved electoral success in the October 26 parliamentary elections, but also a consolidation of macroeconomic normalization. Behind closed government doors, poverty reduction was also assessed, which according to Indec forecasts (the indicator for the second half of 2025 will be announced in March) would be around 27.5%. In addition, the next challenge for the ruling party is on the agenda: the sanction of the 2026 budget which, if not for a last-minute surprise, would take place in the Senate this Friday.
Another planned topic of the meeting is the virtual break that the Cabinet will take between the New Year’s Eve celebrations and Monday, January 5th. Many will take the opportunity to go on holiday or take part in “official” tours that give them a change of scenery. It is known that Cuneo Libarona will travel to Germany in the first days of next year to take a course that will allow him to advance his doctoral thesis and then he could come to Israel to give a lecture on “anti-Semitism”. But he will not be the only Cabinet member traveling abroad in the first week of 2026.
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