Argentina
Villarruel Clashes With Martín Menem on Social Media as Dispute Over Her Role in the Ruling Coalition Grows
The vice president responded with a Diego Maradona meme to criticism from the president of the Chamber of Deputies. In the Senate, she also received backing from José Mayans amid a dispute over her powers.
Victoria Villarruel once again found herself at the center of tensions within the ruling coalition after responding on X with an image of Diego Armando Maradona “sleeping” to Martín Menem’s criticism.
The post was a reaction to a Clarín report on an interview with the president of the Chamber of Deputies, in which he drew a distinction between himself and the vice president. There, he said: “The President was elected to do what he is doing. The vice president does not have the agenda of the people who voted for her. There is a disconnect there.” He also said that Villarruel “does and says something completely different,” that she “is not part of the Government,” and that she does not share “our transformative agenda.”
Menem added that in recent months he had no contact with the president of the Senate, beyond some prior conversations on parliamentary matters.
According to Perfil, the clash coincided with another dispute involving Villarruel, this time in the Senate. José Mayans rejected a proposal to modify the vice president’s powers over the appointment and replacement of members of committees and described the initiative as an “institutional coup.”
In that context, during the debate over an initiative to create a bicameral commission on the Malvinas and the South Atlantic, the bill was rejected by 43 votes to 18, according to Perfil. That outlet also reported that the Justicialist bloc asked for Cabinet Chief Diego Santilli to appear before the Senate to present his management report, in compliance with Article 101 of the National Constitution. The request was driven by Juliana Di Tullio, José Mayans and Fernando Salino.
In the interview cited by Perfil and Crónica, Menem also defended Javier Milei’s administration, compared his project with that of Carlos Menem and came out in favor of eliminating the PASO.
Sources
About this note. Written by El Notero with the assistance of artificial intelligence, based on what was published by the cited outlet. El Notero did not conduct its own reporting on this event.
