“We dodged missiles”: Javier Milei’s government celebrated inflation under control, another veto and fiscal balance

“It was a good week,” is the comment at the Casa Rosada. After learning of the ratification in Congress of the veto on university financing, they say that the president commented to his inner circle: “We dodged the two most powerful missiles that could be fired at us” (referring to the brake on demands for greater spending on pensions and education), and he wondered “What else are they going to throw at us?”.

However, according to government allies, “the vetoes could have been avoided.” They added that “if they had negotiated well, it would not have been necessary to pay the political cost of the vetoes,” they maintain in a kind of complaint to a not so fluid dynamic with Congress.

In this sense, and perhaps with the idea of ​​not repeating mistakes, weekly meetings began to be held led by the Chief of Staff, Guillermo Francos, and the presidential advisor, Santiago Caputo.

In any case, the ratification of the veto was experienced with satisfaction in the presidential environment. The President summarized his state of mind in a WhatsApp message that he sent this Wednesday to an interlocutor who had asked him how he was. Milei’s response was “1122 country risk (new low) 1150 MEP dollar”. That is to say, the head of state is convinced that the economy is getting back on track, as reflected by the financial indicators, and hence his statement that “from now on it will all be good news.”

September inflation of 3.5% was also a good figure. The President himself expressed his satisfaction on social networks by stating: INFLATION GOING DOWN1. Without first going through a hypermarket; 2. No expropriation of assets; 3. Without fixing the exchange rate; 4. Without controlling prices; 5. Recomposing relative prices. You’ve never seen inflation fought like this before. It takes a little longer but it is genuine. VLLC

The situation picture that the President usually presents to his team contemplates that “give” to certain demands (such as those that put the fiscal balance at risk) It would have “disastrous consequences”, leaving him with no other alternative but to “fight”.

In the immediate future, government strategists observe that resistance to official measures is waning. From this point of view, they maintain that the first university march brought together 230,000 people, a figure that was reduced to 63,000 in the last one.

With a positive vision, the President usually repeats in his conversations that the recovery of activity is widespread, “80% of the sectors are green”, driven by the recomposition of salaries, pensions and credit, among other factors.

When it is pointed out that consumption remains weak, Milei disagrees and considers that the measurements suffer from flaws since they do not reflect direct sales. In this sense Marcos GalperinCEO and founder of Free marketpublished this Tuesday on social networks that “August was the record month for units sold in Argentina” in the 25 years of history that the platform has in the country, data that Milei must surely have anticipated. He specified that “there were 20 million products and US$ 916 million“, and he announced that “the growth rate accelerated further in September”.

For the first president, the relevant data is “how little the economy fell even though we made the biggest adjustment in history.” In this regard, he does not stop praising the head of the Treasury Palace, Luis Caputoand his team and not by chance this week he went to the Ministry of Economy to greet them.

In conversations with those close to him, Caputo expresses his recognition of Milei, “a president who lets me do what I do”revealing both the “excellent” harmony with the president and a veiled criticism of the margin of action he had during his previous administration during the presidency of Mauricio Macri.

Management

In the Casa Rosada it is also commented that the achievement of maintaining the veto on university financing in Congress is one of the results of the reserved meeting between Macri and the star advisor, Santiago Caputo.

In Milei’s circle it is said that, after the PRO leader’s criticism of Caputo, the President opted for the practical route of suggesting that They will meet and iron out their differences.. Others believe that this derivation reflects a certain “cooling” in the link between Macri and Milei.

Incidentally, official sources comment that whoever is insistently trying to communicate with Milei is the former president Alberto Fernández. It is also said that the reasons are unknown because The president did not respond to any of the calls.

The recent approval of the single paper ballot It is another of the issues that the president likes, since, as he maintains, he took this initiative as one of its main flags to “fight the political caste”.

The president is convinced – as those around him point out – that with his policies “it will end populism”. In this regard, days ago a collaborator told him about the possibility that Cristina de Kirchner to run for president in 2027, and Milei’s response was “I hope I destroy it like this”.