Low political attendance on the first day of the IDEA Colloquium

The strong presence of the Federal Police inside the hotel was surprising. The first day of the IDEA Colloquium was filled with talks and meetings. Businesspeople who had not seen each other in a long time greeted each other warmly in the hallways, between one presentation and another, where personal, work-related and, above all, political conversations mingled. What caught people's attention was that among the hallways packed with executives, Federal Police officers could be seen crossing paths, both in plain clothes and wearing their blue jackets with the letters PFA on their backs. "Why such an operation?" a CEO with many years of attendance at the event, which has been held in Mar del Plata for more than 60 years, was heard saying. The businessman was right to be surprised. A police presence is common at an event of this kind, but outside the hotel, as an external guard. In this case, several members of the Federal Police could be seen walking through the conference hall, but also through the different floors of the Mar del Plata hotel. "They are checking different levels. They go up and down all the time," said a businesswoman who was also struck by it. The organizers told Infobae that it was "routine." "They were just doing a check of the hotel." With no officials from the national Executive Branch present at the event, the question many attendees were asking was whether that check was because former president of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou, was speaking that day, or whether it was in fact the advance presence planned for the second day of the Colloquium: La Libertad Avanza national senator Patricia Bullrich. Luis Lacalle Pou In either case, the presence of security forces inside the building was striking to those present. Although the conference rooms were full and the hallways overflowed at every coffee break, the political presence was scarce. On this first day, prior to the remarks by former president Lacalle Pou and by the president of Argentina, Javier Milei, via Zoom, those seen included former national deputy Juan Manuel López, of the Civic Coalition; La Libertad Avanza deputy and former PRO member Patricia Vázquez; former Argentine ambassador to China Diego Guelar; and the president of the Radical Civic Union and mayor of Venado Tuerto, Leonel Chiarella. Bullrich's arrival is expected tomorrow. Until Milei's confirmation, the speculation in political chats revolved around why pure Milei-ism was leaving that stage, full of businesspeople, to a Bullrich who displays more independence than the hard core of LLA usually tolerates. Milei spoke via Zoom "It is not very strategic to leave this space to Patricia. She knows how to talk to businesspeople without insulting them and without blaming them for the faults of today or yesterday. Milei's Zoom appearance is also a kind of 'it's not me' regarding the absence of national authorities at the Colloquium." It does not escape anyone that the Government has known the date of the Colloquium for many months, and that the event in France is much more recent. Even so, it took almost the entire cabinet and a good part of the governors on a trip whose results are still unclear. "No one knows anything about what they are doing; they have a communication problem. He went on the trip with all the governors, and everyone is talking about how he is insulting a journalist. It is not clear whether he does it to grab the headlines or because we live in this madness."