Milei loses his chief of ministers, victim of internal pressures

Guillermo Francos, head of Ministers of Javier Milei, presented his resignation from office this Friday night. He did so, he said, “in the face of persistent rumors about changes in the National Cabinet” and so that the president “can face without conditions the stage of government that begins after the elections of last October 26.”

Those elections gave a large and unexpected victory to the extreme right over Peronism. The result suggested that Milei, strengthened at the polls, would renew his support for Francos, the friendly face of an administration characterized by the president’s insults and grievances towards opponents and allies. Apparently, the presidential gestures were not enough and the minister decided to slam the door.

Manuel Adorni, until now official spokesperson and trusted man of Karina Milei, the president’s powerful sister, will take over in Francos’ place.

Together with the Chief of Staff, the Minister of the Interior, Guillermo Catalán, presented his resignation. The official had been in office since September, after Milei decided to revive the ministry after the far-right defeat in Buenos Aires against Kirchnerist Peronism.

The Interior portfolio is in charge of the relationship between the national government and the provinces and Milei had decided to reduce it to a secretary. Given the need to be open to dialogue, he asked Francos to promote his right-hand man to the position of minister.

Francos’ departure was considered a fact before the legislative elections last Sunday. The Casa Rosada expected a tough defeat and Milei himself had announced a change of ministers to relaunch his administration. The victory, however, changed the plans and Franco seemed to emerge stronger. But the friendly fire did not subside.

Milei raised the possibility of appointing Santiago Caputo as head of ministers, the second strongest man in the Government, but who today acts as an external collaborator. The presidential advisor is also mentioned as a possible Minister of the Interior.

Francos never got along with Caputo, whom he blamed for having all the power, but without the legal risks that a minister has. The now former Chief of Staff also did not get along well with Karina Milei, the woman who whispers in the president’s ear and is also his emotional support.

The successes as a negotiator were not enough for the extreme right to stop considering Francos a toad from another well. He was the only Milei minister who came from old politics and had management experience. In a team weighed down by amateurism and devotion to the president, the figure of Francos clearly clashed. It was he who negotiated with the opposition governors and who put his face in Congress. But he frequently clashed with the evidence that the Casa Rosada was not willing to fulfill the promises it made to its interlocutors.

Worn out, Francos finally decided to leave the Government. “By strange coincidence, my first act as Minister of the Interior and my last as Chief of Staff were bring together the governors of the provinces with the National Executive Branch in order to find mechanisms for dialogue and consensus generation, essential to advance the structural reforms that Argentina needs,” he wrote in his resignation letter.

Francos is the second minister that Milei loses in two weeks. Days before the elections, Foreign Minister Gerardo Werthein resigned, fed up with the attacks he received from the digital army that responds to Caputo. Hours later, the Minister of Justice, Mariano Cúneo Libarona, followed him, but after Sunday’s victory his departure was suspended.