Vice President Victoria Villarruel attempted to de-escalate tensions with President Javier Milei by posting a statement on her social media accounts reminiscing about her and the president’s political path and vowing to stand by him.

In the brief text, Villarruel denied that she was involved in dealings over rival political setups. “I am part of the coalition that governs our country, from its very foundation, and I will stay here defending the ideals that led President Milei and me to find a common path,” she wrote.

The president and his second-in-command have been engaged in a public discussion over whether or not a senate session that expelled a pro-government lawmaker was legally valid. Villarruel led the session, but Milei was travelling abroad at the time, meaning that she was formally acting as president, and therefore not entitled to lead the session.

The dispute over when, exactly, presidential responsibility was transferred descended into a public feud further exposing the tensions between the president and his vice.

“In our government, we are relentless,” Milei said during a speech to the youth wing of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s party on Saturday. “Anyone who comes with their own agenda and does not follow the party’s agenda is expelled. ‘Rome does not pay traitors!’” His comment was taken as a jab at Villarruel.

On Thursday, Senators expelled Edgardo Kueider, who was arrested earlier this month after trying to enter Paraguay with over US$200,000 of undeclared cash. Kueider originally entered the Senate as a Peronist, but has consistently backed Milei’s proposals in 2024.

Minutes after the session began on Thursday, around noon, Milei flew to Italy to meet Meloni and participate in her party’s event. The problem the government is now facing is whether the session was valid. The loss of Kueider’s support could affect the La Libertad Avanza administration’s ability to pass legislation: the vote on Milei’s Ley Bases, for example, was tied in the Senate, with Villarruel breaking the tie in favor of the government as the Upper House’s leader. 

LLA lawmakers initially pushed for Kueider to be suspended, rather than expelled, although they ultimately voted to expel him. Suspending him would have meant his seat remained unoccupied and one less vote for the government. He has instead been replaced by a loyal Peronist: one less vote for the government, one more for the opposition.

Milei argues the session was invalid. He said in an interview with El Observador that Villarruel was notified two days prior to his trip through the government’s documentation system. “After I signed the document, the presidential notary called her insistently but she was not picking up, so they texted her secretary, who also did not respond,” Milei said. “If she was leading the session in Congress, she was working as part of the Legislative branch, but at the same time she was the president.”

A source close to Villarruel said that the vice president does not use that documentation system and thus never received that notification. The source also confirmed to the Herald that the presidential notary took the document to Congress in person so she could sign it at 7 p.m. on Thursday, right after the session ended.

On Friday, Villarruel posted a screen-shotted comment of hers, saying she remains vice president “until the [presidential] power is transferred” to her. “That is done via a notification from the presidential notary. I signed the document at 7 p.m.”

Kueider — who remains in home arrest in Paraguay — formally requested on Friday that the session be declared invalid and that the decision to expel him be temporarily suspended, so he can get his seat back.