MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Adorni's admission deepens divisions in Milei's cabinet as the opposition seeks a censure vote

According to reports, La Libertad Avanza figure Patricia Bullrich again questioned Adorni —she spoke of an “ethical omission”

The admission by Argentine Cabinet Chief Manuel Adorni that he kept undeclared savings deepened divisions within Javier Milei's government and accelerated an opposition attempt to remove him through a censure motion. Despite the controversy, Adorni remains at the head of the cabinet.

In a television interview aired on Wednesday night, Adorni acknowledged that he had $506,000 “off the books,” of which some $300,000 reportedly came from cryptocurrency operations carried out between 2013 and 2018 that he had not declared. The documentation was filed the following day with the Anti-Corruption Office. The admission contrasted with what the official had maintained at press conferences and before Congress, where he had asserted that his sworn declaration was “impeccable.”

The matter strained the governing coalition's political roundtable, which met this week led by the presidential general secretary, Karina Milei. According to reports, the Senator and La Libertad Avanza figure Patricia Bullrich again questioned Adorni —she spoke of an “ethical omission” and held that “it will be the courts that have to determine”— and warned that a censure motion could prosper in Congress. Karina Milei, by contrast, backed the official and circulated a photo of cohesion from the meeting, which the Economy Minister, Luis Caputo, did not attend.

On the legislative front, opposition blocs —Unión por la Patria, the Civic Coalition, the Left Front and a faction of Provincias Unidas— requested a special session for Tuesday, June 23, in order to question Adorni and push the censure motion, a mechanism that has not been used since the 1994 constitutional reform and that requires a majority in both chambers. The Cabinet Chief confirmed that he will give his management report before the Senate on July 2, a sign that he does not plan to resign. The PRO party, led by Mauricio Macri, is demanding his exit but said it would not contribute its votes for the censure.

The case also exposed a shift in the presidential account: Milei had stated that Adorni showed him all the documentation of his wealth, but this week he held, in an interview, that in fact he never showed it to him. The judicial investigation for alleged illicit enrichment, moreover, is advancing against his partner, Bettina Angeletti, and his brother Francisco. In parallel, the government received better economic news: May inflation was 2.1%, the lowest since September; country risk closed Friday at 437 points, its lowest level since 2018; and the Central Bank strung together 107 consecutive rounds of foreign-currency purchases.