Javier Milei at Casa Rosada alongside PRO governors
The meetings that the president has been holding lately with PRO governors project a plan aimed at the upcoming legislative elections of 2025.
The figure of Milei has polarized the political spectrum in the same way it has divided Argentine society. Without a doubt, the party most affected by this new rift has been the Propuesta Republicana, or simply the PRO, which has been forced to decide whether to support Milei or not. Even those who declared neutral have been labeled as functional allies of Kirchnerism.
PRO congress members who support Milei have been key for the vast majority of his legislative projects to become law. “Heroes,” as he calls them, enabled Congress to approve the Bases Law and ratify the presidential veto on the university budget and pension increase, among many other contributions that allowed Milei to maintain his premises of not altering fiscal balance and reducing public spending with only 39 deputies and 5 senators. But all of this could change in the lead-up to the legislative elections of 2025.
Milei knows well that all the votes he received in 2023 are only his, as he represented a personal proposal. Anyone who voted for La Libertad Avanza knows this too; they did so precisely because Milei's face and name were on the ballot. La Libertad Avanza, his party, rose as an anti-party, as it symbolized a proposal different from a traditional political party (“caste”); what Sartori defines as anti-system parties.
Now, what is the president's problem? He will not participate in the legislative elections unless he wants to resign from the Rivadavia chair, which is highly imprudent. Consequently, the ambition of LLA to personify itself by constructing a charismatic candidate rather than a party will come back to haunt them when that candidate does not run in the elections.
Thus, it can be understood how Milei seeks alliances with anyone who can help him consolidate his governance, often needing to make tabula rasa as with Daniel Scioli. Because winning elections alone is one thing, and governing alone is another.
Milei already has a socially constructed leadership and a hard core of voters by his side; he just needs to solidify it within the Legislative Power.
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