Now that the right-wing extremist Javier Milei, 53, is the new president of Argentina, the focus is on the other Milei, a woman who is as powerful as she is discreet and who likes to dress in intense colors. The president's little sister is the person he trusts most, his campaign strategist, his stylist, someone he refers to as “the Messiah.” Dressed in white, 50-year-old Karina Milei occupied the seat reserved for First Ladies this Sunday and accompanied her brother on board the presidential convertible to Casa Rosada. When Milei greeted the foreign delegations, she stood next to the new president. As Milei spoke from the balcony of Casa Rosada, she could be seen in the shadows.
On the evening of the election victory, Karina Milei spoke at a public event for the first time. It was her responsibility to open the victory speech in a hotel in Buenos Aires: “I would like to introduce President-elect Javier Milei,” she announced before greeting those present together. She was visibly excited while he kept a serious face. In case there was any doubt, at the most important moment of her life, the first person Milei thanked for her overwhelming victory was Karina: “Without her none of this would have been possible.”
Thin, petite, blonde-colored, Javier calls her Kari; also El Jefe, like this, in the masculine or First Lady.
Many in Argentina consider it the gray brain of the Milei phenomenon. Since bursting into Argentine politics like a whirlwind – for some as an indispensable breath of fresh air, for others as a serious threat – Milei has left many statements that are difficult to forget. Some are also dedicated to Karina. “You know Moisés was a great leader, but he wasn't good at spreading the message. Then God sent Orón to spread the message. Well, Kari is Moisés and I'm the one giving something away. “I'm just a popularizer,” Milei explained excitedly and tearfully during an interview. At this point, Milei was already deputy. There was still one year left for the presidential campaign.
Months later, the current president was at a meeting with some rabbis when they were talking about the Messiah whose return to Jerusalem the Jews are waiting for, and the politician intervened: “What is happening is that the Messiah is my sister, he already is arrived.”, says the local press. The rabbis must have been stunned.
Karina Elizabeth Milei is two years younger than her only brother. Little is known about them, beyond what the politician has said, what the couple's allies and critics have filtered out, and little else. She keeps a low profile. He doesn't give interviews, only a few have heard his voice.
They are children of a marriage between a bus driver and a housewife. They grew up in the Villa Devoto neighborhood of Buenos Aires and attended the same Catholic school. Both are single, without children. And they have been a professional couple for years.
Karina has always had a very close relationship with Javier, who as a child was abused by his father in the face of his mother's complicit silence, for which he had not forgiven them, and who was harassed by his schoolmates. The son didn't speak to his parents for years; he called them “parents” in public. But on election night, Mr. and Mrs. Milei were with their children during the counting and at the moment of victory. She never broke off her relationship with her parents. In this loneliness that accompanied Milei throughout her childhood and youth, Karina was often the only company.
As a representative of the La Libertad Avanza party, she signed the document in which the party denounced “a colossal fraud” in the final phase of the campaign, which the party renounced the next day. But she didn't even dare to follow the election authority's request.
“You always have to have someone to report to. In my case, I will contact my sister,” Deputy Milei said in another interview. She is the person who has been managing her agenda, her interviews, her conferences in Argentina and abroad for years. And she is the gatekeeper, the person who controls who has access to the economist who has erupted like an earthquake in Argentine politics. A control he exercised with an iron hand as his older brother's career progressed toward the presidency.
She has a degree in public relations, studied pastry making, is an amateur sculptor and co-owns a tire shop. When her brother was still an economist and began appearing on television as a talk show host, she was responsible for managing his assets.
It was also Karina who convinced Javier to ditch the suits and embrace the veteran rocker look of leather jackets like the one he wore during the presidential election. The ultra candidate left the car only that day, after Chief Karina inspected the chain of private bodyguards assigned to protect him, up to the fenced corridor through which he entered the electoral college. “She is the most wonderful creature in the world,” he said of her in another interview. It remains to be seen what role Karina will take once her brother's term begins, whether she prefers to continue working behind the scenes, whether she jumps into the public eye as a powerful first lady or, who knows, whether she takes on a leadership position in the next government.