Javier Milei told to ‘grow up' by his vice-president
Victoria Villarruel immediately responded on Instagram, telling her boss to 'behave like an adult' and accusing him of being out of touch because he lived in a 'palace'.
The public spat was triggered by the senate approving motions aimed at raising pensions and allowances to compensate for inflation that still runs at 36 per cent – a reform vehemently opposed by Mr Milei.
The president immediately vowed to veto the pension rise after the Bill was approved by 52 votes to four in a big setback for his radical austerity agenda. Mr Milei blamed Ms Villarruel, who presides over the senate, for failing to block the vote.
'And if, by some chance, which I don't expect will happen, but if the veto is overturned, we'll take it to court,' Mr Milei added. He then reposted the comment on X from a supporter, calling Ms Villarruel a 'traitor, demagogue and stupid in economic terms'.
In her response, she said the president had already achieved a fiscal surplus for the first time in years, adding: 'Helping the most vulnerable shouldn't be so terrible. The issue is that a pensioner can't wait and a disabled female, even less.'
She also called on her boss to spend less on foreign travel. In his 18 months in power, Mr Milei has gone on 24 international trips, an issue that his opponents repeatedly contrast with ordinary Argentines' drastic belt-tightening under his reforms.
Relations have long been strained between the president and vice-president. Although they share a fierce antipathy to all things 'woke', the pair do not see eye to eye on most other issues.
Even allies regard Mr Milei as having a one-track mind, obsessed with all things economic. But Ms Villarruel, who comes from an army family, has long been focused on justifying and minimising the serious human rights abuses that took place under the military dictatorship of the 1970s and 1980s.
She is said to have been hoping to become defence minister as well as vice-president, but was instead frozen out of the president's inner circle.
In May, he publicly refused to greet her during a ceremony at Buenos Aires' cathedral, something Ms Villarruel also highlighted over the weekend on Instagram, saying 'one never loses good manners'.
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