On the campaign trail in Argentina, libertarian economist Javier Milei repeatedly referred to his younger sister Karina as “the boss”. Four months into his presidency, she is making good on the nickname.
Serving as general secretary of the presidency, Karina Milei is not only the gatekeeper to her brother’s agenda and the most trusted of a tiny cadre of advisers. She is also his political general, holding the reins of his party and choosing staff for senior roles in government and the legislature.
A former baker and tarot card reader, Karina Milei only started in politics in 2021 when her brother — then a television commentator and private sector economist — ran for a lower house seat. She managed his successful campaign.
In an interview for a documentary about her brother released last year, one of the few times she has spoken in public, she made a case for the libertarians’ inexperienced and close-knit team.
“I know a lot of professionals in many different areas, but you know what is more important? Our group does this for their ideals, more than anything else,” she said. “When the people you surround yourself with are good people, everything flows better.”
But her growing power has raised eyebrows among politicians and business leaders. Earlier this month, her last-minute kibosh of a committee appointment in congress triggered a split in the lower house bloc of her brother’s La Libertad Avanza (LLA) movement.
In March, vice-president Victoria Villarruel told a television station that Karina Milei’s “strong character” at times turned the president into “poor piggy in the middle” in disputes between the two women.
“Karina is just as important as Milei in the running of Argentina,” said one prominent business leader in Buenos Aires. “I’m not sure yet if it’s a problem, but it’s definitely weird.”
Karina Milei, 52, has been her unmarried brother’s closest confidant since their childhood in a middle-class family in Buenos Aires. Javier Milei, 53, has called their parents “very toxic” and was estranged from them for more than a decade.
“With Kari I won the lottery. There is no more marvellous person in the world,” he said in an August interview.
People who know Karina Milei described her as “super quiet” and “someone who doesn’t try to charm you”. But she does not appear to be shy. In 2016, she appeared on a popular game show with her dog Aaron.
She told the presenter she had “not [done well]” in school but eventually earned a degree in public relations from UADE, a private university in Buenos Aires, graduating in 2001. She then worked at companies ranging from a tyre import-export firm and an insecticide manufacturer to her own Instagram-based cake business.
She was instrumental in her brother’s entry into media and politics in the 2010s, shaping both his long-term strategy and day-to-day logistics.
When Javier Milei staged an economy-themed theatre show in 2018, for example, she “managed all his speaking engagements, the family budget and the box office” as well as performing on stage, said Lilia Lemoine, an LLA lawmaker who worked on the sets, speaking to the Financial Times in December.
“He wouldn’t have become president without her,” Lemoine added.
Now Karina Milei signs off on her brother’s interviews and public appearances, and joins him on trips. Presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni reports to her, and Martín Menem, president of the lower house of congress, is a close ally.
She is one of the president’s three closest advisers — “the people who have seen him in his pyjamas”, said one person who has known the siblings for years. The others are Santiago Caputo, a political consultant, and Nicolás Posse, cabinet chief.
“Karina is less well-connected, less involved in dealings with [the Argentine establishment],” the person added. “But if there’s a disagreement between Karina and Posse, Karina wins.”
Karina Milei’s prominence has led some foreign investors to wonder if they should form a relationship with her. But local business leaders said that did not appear possible; few had met her since her brother took office. “She is more interested in politics than in the economy,” said one executive.
While the president focuses on addressing Argentina’s severe economic crisis and communicating with voters on X, Karina Milei is leading an effort to build a national party structure for LLA.
Only founded in 2021, the movement relied on ad hoc alliances with small provincial parties during the 2023 elections, and did not run candidates for congress or governorships in many provinces. As a result, LLA won fewer than 15 per cent of seats in the legislature.
The president has said winning a larger share in midterm elections in 2025 is essential to his plan to reform Argentina’s economy.
An LLA staffer said Karina Milei’s “extreme protectiveness” of her brother’s project had caused friction within the party. “She doesn’t want to leave anything to fate, which makes her into a bit of a dictator. If you want to control everything, you end up imposing things, and making enemies.”
In April, after the president had signed off on the appointment of Marcela Pagano, a first-term LLA lawmaker, as head of a powerful congressional committee on constitutional matters including impeachment, Karina Milei ordered her removal, according to two people familiar with the decision.
The episode prompted the leader of LLA’s lower house bloc, Oscar Zago, and two others to quit the grouping, reducing it to 38 of the chamber’s 257 seats. While the three pledged to support the president’s reforms, which face congressional votes this week, “it’s clearly not good to have so much division in a small bloc”, said Ignacio Labaqui, senior analyst at Medley Advisors.
Analysts said Karina Milei had also ordered the removal of Ramiro Marra, one of LLA’s founders, as the head of its bloc in Buenos Aires’s city legislature last month. But Marra returned to the role last week.
Karina Milei did not respond to a request for comment from the FT on Marra and Pagano’s removal.
“She has over-extended her influence a little,” said Sergio Berensztein, a political consultant. He added that Karina Milei’s interference in congress had angered some lawmakers, who saw it as undermining the branch’s independence.
Berensztein said she would “need to learn fast” to be successful at the complex task of building lasting alliances in Argentina’s provinces. “You have to talk to people, convince people. It takes a lot. And I think she’s making rookie mistakes.”
That is a learning curve she may have been expecting.
“The truth is, politics is trash,” she said in last year’s documentary. “When we got into this, we said it wouldn’t be easy.”
