Mauricio Macri avoided making statements about Javier Milei's decree to appoint Ariel Lijo to the Supreme Court of Justice
Amid growing tensions with the Casa Rosada and speculation about a possible electoral alliance with Javier Milei , former President Mauricio Macri met with the PRO leadership to analyze the political scenario and define the party's strategy for the upcoming elections. "We are preparing to compete everywhere; we are better than we think," said a representative of the party after the meeting.
Macri headed the party meeting hours after the President formalized, through a decree, the appointment of Ariel Lijo and Manuel García-Mansilla to fill the vacancies in the Supreme Court. However, he avoided commenting on the Executive's maneuver. "It's my daughter's birthday and she's been waiting for me for a while," he said as he left the PRO headquarters at Balcarce 412. He also made no reference to Santiago Caputo , the main strategist of the ruling party, with whom he maintains a tense relationship.
Mauricio Macri's reaction when asked about Santiago Caputo and Ariel LijoThe PRO leader met with his party colleagues, amid tensions with President Javier Milei.
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The first to anticipate the position of the PRO was Alfredo de Angeli , head of the bloc in the Senate, who confirmed that the majority of the bloc will reject Lijo's appointment. "We are going to go against the list," he said. In the Senate, the PRO has seven legislators, including Luis Juez , who distanced himself from Macri at the beginning of the year.
According to estimates from those close to the former president, six of the seven senators in the party would oppose the appointment, although doubts persist about the position of Beatriz Ávila from Tucumán, who is close to the Peronism of her province.
The meeting at the party headquarters was attended by key figures of the PRO, including Jorge Macri, Cristian Ritondo, Diego Santilli, Guillermo Montenegro, Soledad Martínez, Fernando de Andreis and Facundo Pérez Carletti . Governors Ignacio Torres and Rogelio Frigerio were absent, as was María Eugenia Vidal , who is traveling.
The spokespersons designated to communicate the position of the PRO were De Angeli and Pérez Carletti. So far, the party has not issued an institutional statement on Milei's move. However, the rejection of Lijo generates internal divisions. Montenegro, mayor of General Pueyrredón, is one of the main promoters of the judge's candidacy and collaborated with Caputo in the search for votes in the Senate.
Macri had already expressed his rejection of Lijo's candidacy six months ago. "It's a mistake; I told Javier that I didn't agree," he said in August 2024, after the relaunch of the PRO in La Boca.
Last night, a draft was circulating with the arguments that the PRO will use to reject the government's maneuver. The position is based on an article published in LA NACION by Martín Casares , former Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Justice during the administration of Germán Garavano . Casares, current coordinator of the Justice area of the Pensar Foundation, maintains that the appointment of judges by decree "negatively impacts legal security and public confidence in judicial decisions."
The immediate precedent of the appointment of judges by decree dates back to the Macri administration itself, when in 2015 he appointed Carlos Rosenkrantz and Horacio Rosatti to the Court. However, after a strong wave of criticism, the then president resorted to the ordinary mechanism and sent the documents to Congress.
Macri's entourage defends that decision by maintaining that Rosenkrantz and Rosatti did not generate "debate" nor did they have significant objections, unlike Lijo. In addition, they point out that the judges did not take office until the Senate granted the approval with the majority required by the Constitution.
Today, the PRO faces a dilemma. While it tries to distance itself from the ruling party in the Senate and mark differences with Milei, the internal party continues to generate friction. The President's move reopened old discussions about judicial independence and made it clear that, in the dispute over the Court, Macri and Milei do not play on the same team.
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