A certain Napoleonic vocation dominates the head of Javier Milei. He is not worried about opening war fronts, he almost promotes them: from the opposition to Parliament, from singers to unions, from social groups to the provinces. He is not even daunted by the number of adversaries in this last case: he begins this week by confronting the 24 governors of the country, against a new corporation, united by the box, perhaps in the most arduous battle of those initiated by the president. As if it were Russia for the Emperor of France. Then, the highest temperature of the summer will be experienced with institutional risk and a president inflated like the Michelin doll: he enjoys an unusual centrality after international power elected him as a spoiled, preferred child. Even in hatred. Milei returns from the United States, kindly cared for by his Democratic and Republican owners, ready for a confrontation at the national level and with the conviction of redoubling the fight. Like a crusader. The initial discussion grew: now all the governors signed up when Chubut was debating for a handful of dollars, something like 12 million. What was a joke at the beginning has now become a monumental demand. As is known, wars begin with suspicious or minor episodes, they are excuses to fight: the First World Cup, due to the assassination of an archduke (Francisco Ferdinand); and Vietnam, for an incident in Tomkin Gulf.
To get an idea of the stature of the conflict, a confession by Patricia Bullrich a few hours ago in Washington is of interest. Almost a boutade: “In March or April they will hang us from the Plaza de Mayo or, if we pass, Argentina will be a power.” It is always said that Milei, in economics and politics, is like Patricia in security. In truth, what Bullrich said is often mutedly repeated by different men in the opposition, they even raise as an alternative a temporary succession with Vice President Victoria Villarruel. Argentina, a shrink.
In accordance with this war stage, the governors – as if it were a theater of war – have just met to gather air: they do not want to pay the bill or undergo a diet, they stand behind their Chubut colleague. They feel that they are also Michelin’s doll for being together and threaten the National Administration with a rebellion. The ring of Ignacio Torres, in charge of Chubut, fell on their finger, who rebelled against Milei because they compulsively cut off 12 million dollars of co-participation from him to collect a debt contracted by the previous government (a courtesy of Sergio Massa with his friend Mariano Arcioni). The already familiar “Nacho” would have wanted at least one negotiation. They didn’t even give that request a chance; It seems that the influential Santiago Caputo even tried to intimidate him with punishments. Just him, who was not elected by anyone, and the opposite of the governors who were consecrated by vote.
Now Torres is threatening to cut off oil production that is supposed to be generated by the private sector. Or at least, assume a custom of the South: the blocking of routes. And even retain the royalties that companies pay. He set a deadline for his claim: 48 hours to be met this Wednesday. The President, in turn, sends word that he will put him in prison as the Penal Code states in a fight with a lot of smoke, little messages and networks, arrogance and intimations such as: “We are going to go to Court.” Nacho was joined by the rest of the governors, without distinction. Silver has no color. Even those who responded to Together for Change signed up to defend the “baby”, the “baby” is not touched: it is the money. They avoid, however, any suspicion of instability and ask Milei to negotiate. It seems like it’s the last thing Milei will do. Although she is stalked by a black bird: so much resistance from within can complicate the Senate for her and, as is known, the opposition is four votes away from annulling the DNU with which she governs today.
This monetary struggle can be colored by its participants, who hide behind dogma, the Constitution and even ideological issues. “We have territory, we were elected just like Milei,” they maintain, while the President applies the accelerator to full throttle, reiterating that his enemies are the caste, the corrupt who refuse to descend from their privileges. He has a popular majority in favor of him, he is not alone and he fights harder than Napoleon. But they also observe that it is not convenient for him to repeat that enormous stupidity that Néstor Kirchner had with the field on 125: stubbornness. That measure, when Cristina was President Adorno, managed to accumulate contrary wills that the southern consort never accepted: it was not negotiated, it rejected attempts even by Hugo Moyano, it martyred Miguel Pichetto and Alberto Fernández, it disqualified the agricultural unions and generated general violence . He understood, infatuated, that his authority, that of marriage, was at stake, so much so that after the legislative defeat – the rare contrary “no” of Vice President Julio Cobos – he wanted his wife to resign, an episode not materialized by Lula’s intervention, between others. When Bullrich speaks as she just did in Washington, she shows that there is a bubbling spirit like in those times.
The governor of Chubut, like that of Neuquén, affirms that the reduction applied by Milei would prevent him from paying salaries, and that alternative, as is known, is the last act of a man in that position. But this possible drama is not repeated throughout Patagonia: the province of Santa Cruz, for example, faces other dilemmas, to a lesser extent, the economic one. The deficit was reduced in the last stage of Alicia Kirchner’s administration, when she applied a strong adjustment led by the Minister of Economy who would later be head of YPF, Pablo González. The Patagonian description aims to point out the Government’s error at the beginning for not noticing the different provincial problems, their governors and facing them separately. Now, all together, they are more complicated.