Who is Karina Milei, sister and strategist of Argentina’s new president?

Now that the far-right Javier Milei, 53, is the new president of Argentina, the spotlight is on the other Milei, a woman as powerful as she is discreet who likes to dress in intense colors. The president’s little sister is the person he trusts the most, his campaign strategist, his stylist, someone he describes as “the Messiah.” Dressed in white, Karina Milei, 50, occupied the place designated for first ladies this Sunday at the inauguration, and she accompanied her brother to the Casa Rosada, the seat of government, aboard the presidential convertible. When Milei greeted foreign delegations, there she was, standing next to the new president. When Milei addressed the crowds from the balcony of government headquarters, she was visible in the shadows.

On the night of the election victory, Karina Milei spoke for the first time at a public event. She was in charge of giving way to the victory speech in a hotel in Buenos Aires: “I want to introduce the president-elect, Javier Milei,” she proclaimed before greeting attendees. She was visibly excited, while he kept an earnest demeanor. In case there were any doubts, at the most important moment of his life, the first person that Javier Milei thanked for his resounding victory was Karina: “Without her, none of this would have been possible.”

Skinny, petite, with dyed blonde hair, Javier calls her Kari; also El Jefe, as in “the (male) boss” or sometimes first lady.

Many in Argentina consider her the brains behind the Milei phenomenon. Since he burst into Argentine politics like a whirlwind — for some as a badly needed breath of fresh air, for others as a serious danger — Milei has left many statements that are difficult to forget. Some are dedicated to Karina. “You know that Moses was a great leader, but he was not good at spreading the word. Then, God sent Aaron to spread the word. Well, Kari is Moses and I am the one who spreads the word. I’m just a disseminator,” Milei explained during an interview, excited and in tears. By then, Milei was a lawmaker in Congress. There was one year left for the presidential campaign. Months later, Milei was in a meeting with some rabbis when they talked about the Messiah, whose return to Jerusalem the Jewish people are still awaiting, and the politician said, according to the local media: “The thing is, the Messiah is my sister, she has already arrived.” The rabbis must have been stunned.

Karina Elizabeth Milei is two years younger than her only brother. Little is known about her, only what the politician has said, what both allies and detractors of the couple have leaked about them, and little else. She keeps a low profile, does not grant interviews, and few people have heard her voice.

They are children of a marriage formed by a bus driver and a housewife. They grew up in the Villa Devoto neighborhood of Buenos Aires, and went to the same Catholic school. Both are single, without children. And for years they have been a professional couple.

Karina always had a very close relationship with Javier, who as a child was mistreated by his father while his mother stood by in silence, something for which he has not forgiven them. He was also harassed by his schoolmates. The son did not speak to his parents for years, and in public he called them his “progenitors.” But on election night, Mr. and Mrs. Milei were with their children during the vote count and at the moment of victory. Karina never severed the bond with her parents. In that loneliness that accompanied Javier in his childhood and adolescence, Karina was often his only company.

Representative of the La Libertad Avanza (Freedom Advances) party, she signed the document in which the party denounced “a colossal fraud” in the final stretch of the campaign, a statement that the party walked back the next day. She did not even bother to respond to the summons she received from electoral authorities.

“You always have to have someone to report to. In my case, I report to my sister,” said Milei in another interview prior to his victory. She is the person who for years has managed his agenda, his interviews, his conferences in Argentina and abroad. And she is the gatekeeper, the person who controls who has access, and who does not, to the economist who has blown up Argentine politics. A control that she exerted with an iron fist as her older brother advanced towards the presidency.

Karina Milei has a degree in public relations, studied pastry making, is an amateur sculptor and was at one time a co-owner of a tire store. When her brother was just an economist who was starting to go on TV as a talk show guest, she was already in charge of managing his assets.

It was also Karina who convinced Javier to banish the suits he was wearing and adopt that veteran rocker look with leather jackets like the one he wore to vote in the presidential election. The populist candidate only got out of the car after the Boss inspected the cordon of private bodyguards hired to protect him as he made his way down the fenced corridor and into the polling station.

“She is the most wonderful being in the world,” he said of her in another interview. It remains to be seen what role Karina will adopt now that her brother’s term is beginning: whether she prefers to continue working behind the scenes, whether she jumps into the public sphere as a powerful first lady or, who knows, whether she will assume an executive position in the next government.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition