Half of Argentines cannot make ends meet. On average, on the 20th you no longer have any money in your bank account. Middle class citizens juggle: they finance themselves with credit cards, those who have dollars sell them, and those who don’t, borrow from a friend. In the vulnerable sectors the outlook is much more gloomy: informal work is scarce, the changas disappear and in the neighborhoods of the Conurbano barter is once again imposed: at community fairs used toys and sugar divided by weight are offered and there are people who They can exchange a bicycle for a bag of food.

It has already been seen in other times in recent Argentina, and not so recent. The last scenes of this magnitude must be traced back to the pandemic, when the confinement was lifted and the disaster it had left behind emerged. But today, in addition to disturbing statistics, there are emerging, at the same time, an unprecedented phenomenon that keeps the consultants confused: the image of the Government does not collapse as in other pressing moments. 30 percent of people who say they can’t make ends meet He still feels confident in the figure of Javier Milei. This was calculated by a study by Isonomía, a public opinion consultancy that moves the same question from administration to administration.

In that social spectrum that had difficulties satisfying their basic needs, support became nil in Mauricio Macri’s adjustment period and in Alberto Fernández’s, barely 1%. Those consulted by Isonomia seem to leave credit open to the current Government. The time that, perhaps, they do not have for themselves.

It is true that the President has been in office for less than five months and that public image numbers often tend to turn around (for or against) in the face of an unexpected event, even before the leadership can take note. Without going any further, Alberto Fernández went from 80 percent positive image during the confinement that they calculated due to the coronavirus to not even being able to fight for his re-election and leaving power with image levels so low that they forced him to go live for a while. Spain.

The popularity that Milei retains – which is greater in ideologized sectors or those not directly affected by the adjustment – allows him continue to plunge the knife into the economy and into the salaries of retirees in pursuit of balancing the accounts. But, for a significant portion of those interviewed by Isonomía, the effort would be worth it. People are excited that inflation will remain low and trust that Milei will cut the privileges of the political leadership.

This last point has been central, one of its great successes in terms of communication. A strategy that is maintained and that leaves a good part of the traditional parties speechless. Why does Milei insist on attacking deputies and senators when he has not been able to pass a single law? Why are they taking funds away from the same governors with whom she tries to pose for the May Pact? Why does she do stand-up at a dinner with celebrities? Red circle To mock economists like Carlos Melconian and governors like Axel Kicillof?

Simple, according to that logic. The political class, helped by certain economists, businessmen and journalists, would be the culprit of all the misfortunes and you have to crush it every time you can. Yes, to a fault. It is not just a libertarian thought to believe that politicians are a dirty word. This is also what Jaime Durán Barba says, who is not exactly an adherent of mileism: at a dinner at the house of a media businessman he even offered free advice to Daniel Scioli – when the current official was still a presidential candidate – for the case of that it was his turn to go to a runoff with Milei. The quote to Durán Barba is not capricious either: one of his disciples, Santiago Caputo, is the one who commands the discourse – and not just the communication – of the Casa Rosada.

However, this week, for the first time, permanent confrontation design met a wall. Hard, impassable. The march for the UBA and public education was gigantic and surprised the Government to the point of leaving it disjointed and with internal invoices passed as had not been seen until now. In a first reaction, prior to the mobilization, the ruling party tried to associate it with the caste and the political leaders who took the lead, as if it were a partisan act of those who lost the elections and not, as it ended up being, a genuine demonstration of dozens . of thousands of people – mostly young people – who demand that education not be defunded. The images with crowds in squares throughout the country barely emerged, The libertarian discourse entered into crisis.

Milei had to release a statement in which, after some linguistic detours, he had to admit that the march was pursuing “noble causes.” Is it little? It may be, but it is too much if you think about how Milei acts, that he can go so far as to declare that his space wins when an initiative in Congress fails. The next day after the march, his voice, Manuel Adorni, emphasized: “It would never have crossed our minds to break up public education or close universities.” It did not occur to anyone that Milei said something similar on Monday, when he gave a national network to announce his “economic miracle.”

That same Tuesday, and throughout Wednesday, an internal battle was waged in the Government over the political costs of the mobilization and therefore some prior underestimation. The Minister of Human Capital, Sandra Pettovello, the direct person in charge – who manages areas that in other times were independent, such as Social Development, Culture, Labor and Education -, remained for many in the eye of the storm.

A day earlier he had resigned from his deputy, Maximiliano Keczeli, who served as Secretary of Legal Coordination. He was the sixth important official to leave his position in Capital Humano, although there are dozens of third-line employees who were fired and the information did not emerge. “None of them left, we kicked them all out,” Pettovello said privately. We are going to continue like this: we are touching many interests and we are going to continue touching them. Anyone who does not agree…”

Rumors of resignation about Pettovello spread. But the official has Milei’s endorsement and swears that she will not leave. Thursday, They were both gathered alone in the presidential office while the Cabinet meeting was taking place and the ministers did not know why they had not attended. That same day, the operations against Pettovello began with Rosada’s own voices. Pettovello would have remained before the President. The next day, Milei sent a message within his strength, as he announced yesterday Clarín.com: “Whoever I hook into an operation, I throw him out,” he said. He did nothing more than admit that the movements exist and are his own.

Milei hates internal affairs and gets angry when things happen. Few things irritate him more than that. This week he had two moments of discomfort: when the attacks of some officials against Pettovello were aired (always off the record) and when he found out that they had asked about his dogs at the press conference. Those who look after their emotional state were more concerned about the second than the first.

The president also asked several times about the Base Law. Although at the Libertad Foundation dinner he implied that he could govern even if he does not come out, he feels that he needs to give a signal to the market and the IMF, which ask him to take some initiative in Congress. His advisors told him that it will be easy in the House of Representatives, and that he will have to work so that he can later win the vote in the Senate. Concessions made. Maybe there are more.

The PRO is giving him a big hand, even when its deputies and governors feel attacked by Milei from time to time and when it does not seem entirely clear what the state of the relationship is between the President and Mauricio Macri. “Presi,” the libertarian called him at dinner. Macri got angry. That was it.

Those who visit the former president say that they are facing a real dilemma. The tough PRO candidates have already emigrated to the ranks of La Libertad Avanza: they want Milei to do well and, when they run into Macrista leaders on the street, They talk to them as if they were part of the same project. That is why the possibility of a confluence cooled. Macri feels threatened, much more so since Karina Milei launched the party in the City, the ground that Macri will never abandon. There are those who whisper to him: He will have to be a candidate for senator next year to prevent growth libertarian. Macri does not want to return to the hustle and bustle of a campaign, much less think about assuming a position in Congress. But, sometimes, politics is not a matter of will. That’s what they tell you.

Macri has just assumed the presidency of the PRO. There are those who wonder – some with good intentions and others with evil – if they accumulate to save him or to see how his fire, little by little, begins to be extinguished.