With one foot boarding the plane that will take him to the United States for the fourth time in just five and a half months as president, Javier Milei fired this Monday his chief of staff of ministers, Nicolás Posse. The measure was officially confirmed by the Argentine Government late at night, after days of speculation about the departure of the official, estranged from the far-right president and his sister, Karina Milei, known as “the boss.”
The position of coordinating minister will remain in the hands of Guillermo Francos, until now head of the Ministry of the Interior, the political portfolio par excellence, who will be demoted to Secretariat. In a Government marked by a shortage of its own legislators in Congress, and in the midst of a critical economic situation, the Interior plays a key role as the axis of dialogue and negotiation between the national Executive and the provincial governments.
“President Javier Milei accepted the resignation presented by Nicolás Posse to the Head of the Cabinet of Ministers. This decision was motivated by the difference in criteria and expectations in the course of government and the tasks entrusted to it,” the Casa Rosada said in a statement. He added that Francos will take over the position held by Posse “in order to provide greater political volume to the Chief of Staff. In this framework, the Chief of Staff will absorb the powers of the Ministry of the Interior, in an Interior Secretariat, headed by Dr. Lisandro Catalán.”
Strikingly, the Executive’s statement excluded the usual gratitude to the outgoing official, as is customary. On the other hand, he did not spare praise for his replacement Francos, whom he characterized for his “professionalism, experience and political ability” and for having “successfully held the position of Minister of the Interior, having been one of the architects of the feat that led to Javier Milei to the presidency andbeing recognized by all political forces for his management capacity and consensus.”
Posse’s departure joins the long list of officials ejected or resigned in a Government that will only complete six months in office on June 10. Within this drain of collaborators, Posse is the second minister to leave the cabinet, after the departure in January of Guillermo Ferraro, then in charge of the Ministry of Infrastructure. But he is the first in importance, given the closeness that he initially maintained with Milei, who used to define him as a friend. They had met working together in the private sector, in Corporación América, the group of businessman Eduardo Eurnekian. Extremely low profile, engineer Posse only let his voice be heard publicly two weeks ago, when he had to give his management report before the Senate.
The unrest between the president and his coordinating minister had its first expression two months ago, when Milei signed a resolution that increased the salaries of senior government officials, including his own, despite his chainsaw preaching to cut public spending and the litany of “there is no money.” As it was revealed, the responsibility lay with the Chief of Staff and, given the social unrest generated in a context of abrupt fall in salaries and pensions, Milei was forced to admit that he had signed something he was unaware of and to reverse the increase.
In recent weeks, those around the president and his sister, general secretary of the presidency, questioned Posse for delays in decision-making and for his lack of commitment to Milei’s initiatives. In addition, they targeted him for management at the Federal Intelligence Agency (AFI), which would also be beheaded.
Last Wednesday, when the president set up a Showat Luna Park and sang to present his latest book, Posse’s absence was noticeable. Even then his fate was cast. The next day, when reports about the expulsion of the Chief of Staff were growing, Milei admitted that changes in officials were coming. “When you manage you have milestones, the first milestone of this Government is the outcome of the Bases law, marking that milestone, we have to evaluate the results. Not only Posse, but all the ministers,” she said in an interview with the channel The Nation +, after being consulted about the future of Posse. A sign of the tension within the Cabinet was that the decision could not wait for the “outcome of the bases law”, Milei’s proposal to dismantle the State and deregulate the economy that is still being debated in the Senate.
The official communication of the dismissal made by the Chief of Staff herself tried to disguise the internal differences: “Posse will continue to accompany, as from the first day, the ideas of freedom, the defense of life and property and the project of a free Argentina promoted by President Milei” from “a new role, which will be announced in the coming days.”
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