When and why did Eduardo Eurnekian’s relationship with Javier Milei change?

The phrase that Eduardo Eurnekian said this Wednesday about Javier Milei bounced around all the media: “I have 3,700 jobs in my company and one failed, what do you want me to do?”“said the businessman, laughing, about the libertarian candidate, minutes before the lunch of the Inter-American Council of Commerce and Production (CICyP), when he was entering the Alvear Hotel, where Milei spoke.

Then, given the repercussions generated by his statements, Eurnekian, founder and president of Corporación América, where Milei worked for 15 years, He tried to tone it down. And in statements to Télam, he said that the word “failed” had “no negative connotation. Someone can fail, in the sense of an exception to the rule and seeking the Presidency.”

When Milei was consulted about Eurnekian’s statements, the libertarian candidate also tried to tone down those statements and He said it was “a funny joke.”

However, the businessmen who attended another lunch with Milei, in the same place and also organized by the CICYP, a few months ago, on June 29, remembered that at that time it was Eurnekian who proposed a toast to the libertarian candidateout of protocol, at the end of his presentation to the businessmen.

“I honestly wish, Javier, that you have the opportunity to demonstrate to Argentine society that order, discipline, coherence is the only path that leads to the success of nations,” Eurnekian said on June 29, when he asked for a toast to Milei, who was smiling at his side.

That day, in his presentation to the CICYP businessmen, Milei highlighted that he was employed for 15 years at Eurnekian’s company, where he was the group’s chief economist. And after that lunch, Milei went to have a coffee with Eurnekian at the Alvear hotelalong with his running mate Victoria Villarruel.

That close bond between Milei and Eurnekian continued in public, two months later, at another luncheon organized by the Council of the Americas. On August 24, the libertarian candidate entered the Alvear Hotel through the garage and he met in one of his apartments with Eurnekianprior to giving his speech to the businessmen.

At that time, it was noted that several executives of the Eurnekian group were playing hard with Milei: Guillermo Francoswho was director of Corporación América and resigned as Argentine representative in the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), when he was appointed as virtual Minister of the Interior in case Milei wins.

Y Nicolas Posseamong others, who joined Corporación América through Francos, where he was general manager of the Southern Argentina business unit, at Aeropuertos Argentina 2000, until this year he requested a license to organize Milei’s technical teams and be its head of Cabinet if he wins the elections.

Milei and Posse worked together in Eurnekian’s company on the Aconcagua Bioceanic Corridor project, to install a train that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific, along with a 50-kilometer tunnel that crosses the Andes Mountains. That project foundered, despite the insistence of Rafael Bielsa, who was president of Corporación América until he was appointed as ambassador to Chile by the government of Alberto Fernández.

The sources consulted by Clarion They assured that the rift between Eurnekian and Milei occurred in mid-September, when the libertarian candidate made strong statements against Pope Francisof whom he said in an interview with the American journalist Tucker Carlson, close to Donald Trump, that he was “in favor of bloody dictatorships” and “murderous communists.”

At that time, videos were already circulating where years ago Milei had said that the Pope was an “imbecile” and the “representative of evil on Earth.” So when Milei attacked the Pope again, Eurnekian distanced himself from the libertarian candidate, due to the special relationship that the businessman has with the Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church.

“The Pope’s investiture must be respected, as must his political and religious leadership in the world,” said Eurnekian. And he cooled his relationship with Milei, something that his advisors had been demanding since the book “El loco” by Juan Luis González was published last July, in which he revealed How Eurnekian helped Milei start his political career and then continued to strengthen that bond over the years.