Lower House Speaker Martín Menem has defended the decision to appoint his 23-year-old “once-removed” nephew to a lucrative job in the Secretariat he oversees at Congress.
Initial reports that Menem, 48, had appointed his relative, Federico Sharif Menem, as general director of the Secretariat he controls through his post as speaker of the lower house Chamber of Deputies emerged on February 29.
In a radio interview this week, Menem defended the appointment by saying he trusts his young relative “implicitly.”
“I can take it because he’s someone working tirelessly whom I trust, of my inner circle,” said the lower house speaker.
The La Libertad Avanza lawmaker accused opponents of attacking his nephew in order to “affect some interests.”
The naming of Sharif Menem as general director of the Private Secretariat of the Presidency of the Lower House was broken by author and journalist Gabriel Bracesco on the X social network.
Bracesco alleged that Sharif Menem will be paid two million pesos a month (around US$2,366) while serving in the role – nearly 10 times the minimum wage.
Menem, who himself comes from a family of political leaders that includes late former president Carlos Menem, confirmed to the press this week that Sharif Menem is his “nephew once removed.”
“He’s not my direct nephew, he’s once removed, he’s been working with me for two and a half years,” the La Libertad Avanza lawmaker said in a radio interview. “He’s my most trusted person, my eyes, my shadow, he’s everywhere. I don’t understand who you want me to find to work by my side.”
News of the controversial appointment, which comes with Argentina in the midst of a deep economic crisis, met with criticism from opposition lawmakers.
The government of President Javier Milei, who promised to attack the nation’s “corrupt political caste” during last year’s fraught election campaign, has introduced a strict austerity and deregulation programme in a bid to restore investor confidence and right the economy.
Menem claimed that only 19 new individuals had taken on congressional positions in the 90 days since he assumed his role and that his predecessors had appointed far more employees.
The speaker claimed that President Milei’s cutbacks for Congress – which included the selling of 50 cars out of a fleet of 140 – had generated savings of nearly US$7 million. Other “superfluous expenses” would also be targeted, he added, suggesting that the television channels of both the lower house Chamber of Deputies and upper house Senate as options.
Lawyer-turned-businessman Martín Menem, hailing from La Rioja, is the son of Eduardo Menem, a former senator for more than 20 years, and the nephew of former president Carlos Saúl Menem, who led Argentina for a decade from 1989-1999.
Martín Menem, who was handpicked by Javier Milei for the role of Lower House speaker, did not join the political scene until 2021. He was encouraged to do so by the 53-year-old economist after the duo crossed paths at private events.
Menem joined Milei’s government after he won last year’s presidential election.
The Times was unable to substantiate the figures regarding Sharif Menem’s remuneration, nor the claims on savings generated by cutbacks made by Menem Martín Menem.
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