Within the strange underworld of power that supports Javier Milei’s political structure, there are many weird characters. Yet Lilia Lemoine may be amongst the most bizarre. If star political advisor Santiago Caputo is the mastermind behind the Milei administration’s communications strategy, Lemoine (who is not a fan of the powerful political strategist) commands the first line of defence in the culture war that La Libertad Avanza coalition is waging. And in the same way as Caputo, Lemoine derives her political capital from a close relationship with the Milei siblings.
Lemoine often shares images of herself with Karina on social media, while she is reported to have had a romantic relationship with Javier. Like the President, the “star deputy” is overly dramatic, theatrical and volatile, giving her public appearances a sense of suspense and tension given they are impossible to predict. She has emerged as one of the most public faces of La Libertad Avanza and acts with a certain impunity that – not for the first time – put her at the centre of the scene this week. Her public confrontation with colleague Marcelo Pagano, a fellow libertarian deputy, ramped up the rumour mill, which suggested she has compromising information on several high-ranking members of the Milei administration.
Pagano, a former journalist who seems to have a knack for scandal, accused her fellow deputy of filming videos and storing them up to extort people. “Give another psychiatric pill to Lilia Lemoine, who seems to have skipped it today,” she posted on social media. “Poor her, sleeping all day, going out at night, and projecting onto others what she herself does: filming videos and extorting the people she films … [sic] She’s been ‘yelling’ all around about the ‘confidential’ material she has. Or do you not also question the level of impunity she has? I’m not scared of you, Lilia Lemoine, or your real boss.”
Pagano was responding to a post by Lemoine, in which she posted screenshots of a fight between the two in a private WhatsApp group. The cosplay star turned lawmaker accused her counterpart of leaking private information about her to the press. Enter Jorge Rial, a famous gossip journalist who has become a political commentator on C5N, the Kirchnerite-friendly cable TV channel that is part of Grupo Indalo, led by Cristobal López and Fabián De Sousa (a duo who have been accused of substantial tax benefits during the K years). Live on TV, the aforementioned Rial showed a picture of a couple holding hands, apparently in an intimate situation, indicating that it is part of the material Lemoine uses to extort the president and others in his inner circle.
In a piece in Perfil this week, journalist Ramón Indart explained that sources in the Casa Rosada are nervous about the “sensitive” material Lemoine apparently has in her possession, which extends beyond Milei. She’s one of the few people who has gone up against Caputo (with no apparent reaction from the digital “troll army”), Vice-President Victoria Villaruel and deputy José Luis Espert. There are reports that the humiliating material may even involve the president, as well as incriminating private information about other members of the President’s inner circle. Lemoine was seen in the Casa Rosada this week, reportedly meeting the head of state and his sister. Pictures of her playing with the new presidential pet, Thor, later popped up on her Instagram feed.
The gossip is extremely interesting yet superfluous, but it does paint a picture of the method behind Milei’s madness, to paraphrase the Bard. Indeed, La Libertad Avanza’s internal fissures have already provoked the loss of congressional muscle both in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, making Milei’s coalition even weaker and therefore forcing an even bigger dependence on Mauricio Macri’s PRO party, and the circumstantial support of the pan-Peronists, led to a certain extent by Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (if negotiations reportedly between Caputo and Eduardo ‘Wado’ De Pedro are successful). Despite Cabinet Chief Guillermo Francos’ attempts to play the political game, the President and his authorised proxies – from Caputo’s anonymous social media posts to Lemoine’s constant TV appearances – are constantly designed to pick fights with the whole of the “caste,” including Macri and his PRO party, certain members of the Unión Cívica Radical (UCR) which have expressed a desire to support part of the President’s agenda (such as deputy Rodrigo De Loredo, who heads the bloc in the Chamber of Deputies), and the centrists close to Miguel Ángel Pichetto.
This lack of expertise has helped the government’s political opponents earn some quick wins. Despite lending their support for the watered-down version of the ‘Ley de Bases’ mega-reform, De Loredo went on to promote a bill that passed a new formula for adjusting payments to retirees and pensions, forcing Milei to eventually veto the law and expose himself politically (Milei, as ever, blamed the supposed impact on the budget surplus, this government’s mantra). Furthermore, the Chamber of Deputies voted against a DNU emergency decree assigning an extra US$100 million in cash to the newly minted SIDE spy agency/intelligence service, which is run by Caputo through his proxy, Sergio Neiffert. With Caputo said to be looking to use SIDE to coordinate the government’s digital propaganda campaign, legislative defeat delivers a hard blow to his strategy, which comes in tandem with the appointment of arch-enemy Martín Lousteau as chair of the committee responsible for overseeing the intelligence agencies, another legislative blunder for La Libertad Avanza.
There’s also the issue of judge Ariel Lijo’s postulation for a Supreme Court bench, which is generating a strong reaction from a substantial portion of the political class, which accuses him of corruption and impunity. It is at least surprising to see President Milei defending Lijo’s nomination with the argument that he is the judge who best knows the legal system and the only one who could lead the anti-caste reforms he has in mind – Lijo, of course, is one of the traditional federal judges who works at the infamous Comodoro Py federal courthouse, and his judicial management have been questioned even by international organisations who very much support Milei’s ideological stance.
The underlying issue is that the Milei administration may be able to tame inflation, yet it needs to generate confidence in order to continue with its policy plan. Whether or not Economy Minister Luis ‘Toto’ Caputo’s plan is adequate or not, any administration needs to show itself as outwardly trustworthy, in order to attract international support and ultimately, financing and investment. With the President picking fights with “lefties” across the globe, and the likes of Lemoine in Congress, whatever reforms the Milei administration manages to pass will be considered reversible given the lack of political accords that give other actors a sense of ownership that would incentivise them to sustain those policies in the future. At the same time, internal chaos within the smaller caucuses in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, along with defections, show how politically fragile this administration is. At the end of the day, everything seems to hang on Milei’s popularity, with the exception of the aforementioned economic plan, Deregulation & State Transformation Minister Federico Sturzenegger’s agenda, and Security Minister Patricia Bullrich’s “tough on crime” plans for law and order.
Gossip-worthy scandal in the Casa Rosada just adds fuel to the fire.
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