The revolving door at the Casa Rosada has picked up to a frenetic, record-breaking pace. With Manuel Adorni's resignation and Diego Santilli's formal arrival in his stead, Javier Milei has become the president who has gone through the most Cabinet Chiefs in a single term: four turnovers in barely two-and-a-half years. Far from a colourful detail, the constant rotation exposes a direct crisis at the heart of the government's inner circle.
The figures come from a report by Marcelo Bermolén, director of the Observatory for Institutional Quality at the Universidad Austral. The study reveals that under the La Libertad Avanza administration, the average tenure of Cabinet chiefs has fallen to 310 days – the lowest figure for any popularly elected president, even worse than the fragile numbers left by Fernando de la Rúa's unstable government.
Milei’s government now holds the podium for the most fleeting coordinating ministers since the return to democracy. Nicolás Posse lasted just 169 days in office, crowning him the shortest tenure in history. Second place in the negative ranking went to Adorni himself, who had to pack his bags after 235 days in the post amid a corruption scandal.
Cross-referencing data, Bermolén concludes bluntly that Milei's Presidency has set a series of records that deepen the trend of precariousness and institutional devaluation affecting the post. Adorni's departure stands as the clearest symptom of an accelerated wear in tenure hitting the current administration head-on, he argues.
Over almost 31 years, 24 officials have passed through the Cabinet Chief’s Office across 12 different presidential terms. Even so, the recent accumulation of negative records reinforces a structural crisis that has drained credibility from a key piece of the state machinery.
The 1994 constitutional reform had designed the Cabinet Chief role as a "super minister" or "primus inter pares," an official capable of overseeing the full management of government and answering to Congress. However, the Universidad Austral report warns that politics has stripped the post of power until it lost its shine, prestige and real weight – in practice, the position has been reduced to a simple trusted subordinate of the President within Argentina's system.
The report also sharply criticised the ongoing institutional tampering the post suffers when its holders combine it with other functions. It notes that it is not a healthy practice for the official in charge to simultaneously hold other roles, such as presidential spokesperson or director of state companies, rather than dedicating themselves exclusively to their constitutional duties.
The sharpest contrast with the current instability comes from former president Alberto Fernández, who holds the record for total time in the post with 1,886 days – a tally that combines his stints working alongside late former president Néstor Kirchner and former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
Another notable fact – despite the constant parade of officials and several presidents' who have professed support for gender equality, one figure remains stuck at zero: to this day, no woman has ever led the Cabinet Chief’s Office.
– TIMES/PERFIL
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