Amid the debate over young candidates, LLA is preparing a congress with more than 1,000 activists to show its structure

Gustavo GavottiThe Youth of La Libertad Avanza will meet this Saturday in Morón to hold its Provincial Congress. The gathering aims to bring together more than 1,000 young people from Buenos Aires Province and takes place amid the social media debate among ruling-party leaders over the strategy of including grassroots activists on electoral lists. The Buenos Aires youth gathering of LLA will take place at 4:00 p.m. at the Bakers' Union of Morón and will bring together youth leaders, provincial legislators, and national deputies from Buenos Aires Province. The event will conclude with a lecture by Sebastián Pareja, president of La Libertad Avanza in Buenos Aires Province. From the organizing team, they told Infobae that the gathering continues the youth congresses held in Tucumán and Salta. In the latter province, there was a demonstration by the libertarian youth, who welcomed both Karina Milei and Diego Santilli upon their arrival at the local airport. "It demonstrates the participation of young people in the political building of the space in the province," they wrote from the national party in a press release. That same issue is what has come to the fore in recent days. The gathering takes place while, within the national ruling party, the representation of young leaders and digital activists on electoral lists has once again been under discussion. The debate was reactivated after Flavio Bolsonaro brought in young people linked to social media for his presidential campaign in Brazil. Gustavo GavottiProvincial deputy Agustín Romo, leader of the Las Fuerzas del Cielo group, linked to presidential advisor Santiago Caputo, highlighted that several young professionals who gained notoriety for their digital activism in favor of Bolsonaro won governorships and legislative seats. "They were the most voted in their districts against traditional politicians. Interesting," he wrote. This was seized upon by activists and anonymous users in the libertarian sphere to call for a different policy for the selection of young candidates. The one who took up the challenge was Karina Milei loyalist Romina Díez, a national deputy and president of the Santa Fe branch of La Libertad Avanza, who responded that La Libertad Avanza had brought Agustín Pellegrini and Valentina Ravera to Congress, whom she described as the two youngest deputies in Argentine history because they took office at age 25. "Young people must be the protagonists of their own future. Because if they don't get involved, others will decide for them," she said. The exchange occurred a year after Santiago Caputo's faction was practically excluded from the libertarian slates for the legislative elections by decision of Karina Milei. The discussion also foreshadowed the tensions over the building of candidacies for the 2027 presidential elections. Among those who make up the Las Fuerzas del Cielo group, they said that Romo's message was not intended to open an internal confrontation and attributed the subsequent criticism to spontaneous expressions from activists. Díez responded to several users, and leaders such as Martín Menem, who is vice president of La Libertad Avanza, reposted Díez's messages, while Karina Milei loyalist Santiago Oría publicly backed the libertarian leader from Santa Fe. Critics of the list-builders say they don't care how many young people were elected last year because they claim that "their representativeness in the sector is low, not to say almost nil." They believe that young activists close to the cielista camp have greater reach on social media and that "the Menems keep them away from the list-building even though the President constantly defends them." Gustavo GavottiThe rift between that sector and the head of the national youth wing of La Libertad Avanza seems to have no solution heading into next year. That structure is led by Sharif Menem, right-hand man of the president of the Chamber of Deputies, as well as Iñaki Gutiérrez, the influencer with very close ties to the Milei brothers. The coordinator of La Libertad Avanza's university youth wing, Rocío Gómez, has also begun to gain visibility. All three will be in Morón on Saturday leading the provincial congress. In that sector, they defend themselves by saying that there are young leaders who won seats who "keep a low profile and prefer to work quietly on the ground." "We brought in a lot of young people if you count national and provincial legislators and council members. We could even say that in Brazil they were inspired by the idea of putting young people on the lists, an idea they stole from Karina Milei. They took it from the framework La Libertad Avanza used to choose candidates in 2025," they add. Another case mentioned by Díez's supporters is the selection of Lautaro Enríquez, who became the youngest council member in the city. They make the same claim about Candela Rodríguez, one of the youngest constitutional convention members in the province. The idea of the leadership of the national youth wing of La Libertad Avanza is to continue with this type of congress next week in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires and in Mendoza. This would culminate in a national event that could end up taking place in the province of Córdoba. The date for that final event has not been set. For this Saturday, members of Las Fuerzas del Cielo are expected to attend, even though in some branches consulted by this outlet they said they had not been notified of the event. La Libertad Avanza in SaltaThere are cases where there is harmony between those who advocate for the Caputo-aligned leadership and others who answer directly to the structure of the presidential sister. A paradigmatic case is Bahía Blanca. University Students of La Libertad Avanza (ULLA, the cielista faction) and University Students for Freedom (UPL, the group that Gómez coordinates nationally) closed an agreement to present joint lists in the upcoming elections of the National University of the South. Those designing the strategy of the libertarian youth believe there are no young leaders known to the vast majority of society. "I'd say the person who can really have cross-cutting recognition is Iñaki [Gutiérrez], who is known by the kids and even by older ladies," says a source from that circle. Critics of the leadership respond: "For the older ladies there's the President. Being young is not a positive quality in itself. None of those currently in office represents Milei's ideology."