A new scenario for old politics

What will remain of what León XIV illuminated, pointed out, questioned and restored through everything he did, said, and the ways in which he did and said it during four placidly frenetic (or frenetically placid) days? That is the great question running through (almost) all Argentines, but one that, very especially, keeps the most sensitive ruling and opposition political leaders awake at night. There are such leaders, even if they don't stand out much. There are no certain answers for now, and perhaps there won't be for a good while, but the first signs indicate that we are facing a novel scenario, of uncertain solidity or fragility, in which we Argentines will navigate as we head toward the process leading to the election of the President in October of next year. In the immediate term, the Government set out to try to recover the centrality it relinquished during these days, eager to capitalize on whatever it can from the papal visit. Also with the aim of minimizing or relativizing the numerous concepts and gestures of the immensely popular León XIV, which came into conflict with the common sense imposed by Javier Milei since he acceded to the Presidency, thanks to the political delegitimization and moral defection of most of his adversaries. Thus, amid the not-yet-dispersed beatific wake of the Pope, expressions of the old politics (embodied by new and old leaders) recovered with extreme urgency the space they had provisionally lost. To confirm that the rootedness of a culture is expressed through reflex actions and that changing it requires a great deal of time and practice. The papal concord did not end old conflicts or worn-out practices, which re-emerged like a compressed spring held down for almost five days. First came the predictable partisan and personal attempts to appropriate the messages. Everyone now has their own León XIV, and everyone found some argument to say they had been blessed and to deny having been reproved. In that latter respect, the Government stood out, which — through the mouth of the Foreign Minister (always ready to display remarkable conceptual contortionism in service to the President) — dared to deny conflicts between the Church's social doctrine and Milei-style libertarianism. This despite the long list of disparagements Javier Milei has lavished on the practical expression of that category, which is social justice. The endless libertarian infighting As confirmation of the parenthesis status that the visit represented for many politicians, what followed was the return to the public agenda of the Government's internal disputes, which regained their vitality, along with certain manners and expressions located at the antipodes of the papal loving preaching and disposition. The publication on the President's social media account of a supposedly enigmatic message was quickly interpreted as a sentence against Patricia Bullrich: "There are people willing to sink the ship when they realize they will not be the captain," it read over the image of a vessel in flames. The ill-timed post could have had several recipients, including the most radical opposition figures, but no one from the presidential circle came out to deny that the leader of the libertarian bloc in the Senate topped the list. Adding to suspicions, yesterday there was a kind of public ultimatum from the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, the ultra-Karina loyalist Martín Menem, to Bullrich so that the Senate would take up the political reform, whose main objective is the elimination or, at the very least, the suspension of the PASO primaries. In the Karina-Menem camp they attribute to the senator a scant conceptual and practical enthusiasm for that initiative, relying on the doubts she has expressed about whether there are sufficient votes in the upper chamber to turn it into law. A skepticism that contrasts with the enthusiastic optimism exuded by the Chief of Staff, the person chiefly responsible for securing the votes. Diego Santilli asserts he has the support of half plus one of the body, as required by the Constitution, to pass electoral laws. Though he keeps the difficult names under wraps "for fear that some pressures may lead to defections." Certainties are always relative in politics. Bullrich's recurrent differentiating statements, repeated in recent days, feed the conspiracy hunters of Congress and the Casa Rosada. Among them stand out the Menem cousins, from whose circle there has emerged forcefully in recent days the rumor that a final offensive may be brewing to rein in or displace the veteran and seasoned senator, up to the possibility of an outright rupture. Added to this was the unexpected and unprecedented praise, in the midst of the papal vigil, from Milei to Mauricio Macri, interpreted within the ruling party as a strategy to isolate the senator and cut off the paths that could lead her to reclaim for herself the yellow-shirted voter base on the basis of her own political project without Milei's tutelage. "With Patricia, not everything is bad. It's true that Javier and Karina are not happy, but it's the Menems who fan the flames. And Javier's praise of Macri is not meant to hurt her, but to order the relationship with the PRO, which we cannot afford to lose. The thing is, in the interior, the Macrists clash with the Menems' operatives," says a prominent Cabinet figure, also aligned with Karinismo, who seems to have her own internal battles. Meanwhile, Bullrich does not stray from the path of critical Milei-ism. "I will keep raising the need for changes so we don't return to the past, because if there aren't any, it will be hard for the Government to achieve re-election. Today the numbers don't add up," the senator explains to those who question her about her independence. The changes she is aiming at, she has already said, relate to economic policies, which are not satisfying the demands and needs of broad sectors of society. The rebound in inflation, which once again exceeded 2% as published yesterday, and the economic activity data give her arguments. However, Bullrich does not limit herself to sparring with Toto Caputo's area. Her criticisms aim higher and farther. "If the numbers don't add up for re-election, it's not only because of the economy, though that is key, but also because of Milei's manner and the fatigue all of that is producing in society," they claim to have heard the (for now) president of the LLA Senate bloc say. In the massive gatherings around Pope Prevost, Bullrich would have found further arguments to sustain her hypothesis about the reasons for the detachment of a majority part of society from the ruling party. She is not the only one who thinks so. The cap fits everyone The first public opinion field studies show that the massive turnout (in person and through traditional media and social networks) for the visit far exceeds religious fervor and finds many earthly motivations, in times marked by unease and uncertainty. In Peronism, most claim to feel vindicated by the papal preaching, but few acknowledge that their purported role as political representatives of social justice and equity has been badly worn down by their own failings. The political delegitimization from their failures in government — particularly the most recent one, which led to Milei's victory — is compounded by a moral condemnation that weighs on much of their leadership, which perverted or bastardized those noble concepts for their own benefit. The inefficiency in administration to solve the country's problems and the personal and family enrichment of Peronism's political and union leadership are not easily overcome, not even with papal help. León XIV exposed on many levels the deficiencies of the Government, as well as the defection of Peronism and many other sectors of the political leadership. He challenged them on the plane of politics and the capacity to govern as much as in the moral dimension. The cap fits everyone, though almost none of them wants to wear it. In that latter respect, the challenge may have been greater for the ruling party. Especially after Milei defined this year that his objective was no longer to win the cultural battle but scaled up to define himself as the marshal of the moral battle. The battle over meaning has been firmly established, and the moral authority of León XIV seems to have no rivals of his stature. Processing what happened is quite a challenge. The penetration of the visit can be measured not only by the millions of attendees at the various events León XIV headlined. The metrics of social media interactions also show the magnitude of the impact. "Between November 8 and 11, 2026, 1.6 million digital mentions of the Holy Father's visit were recorded. It was one of the few events with a high volume of conversation sustained over 96 hours. And the peculiarity lies not only in having monopolized the conversation but in doing so in a single direction. The recorded positivity also makes it a historic event," notes a survey conducted by the AdHoc consultancy. Moreover, "messages about disability and the economy circulated more than others. The Pope's speech was taken up by users who pointed out their differences with the national government's worldview," highlights Javier Correa, head of the consultancy. On the political front, the survey yields a troubling reference for the main leaders, though it should come as no surprise since it coincides with most image measurements. The conversations linking leaders and officials to the visit show that the most mentioned were Milei, Jorge Macri and Axel Kicillof. The territorial question carried weight. But they have little to celebrate. The references were mostly negative, and the ranking was led by the Buenos Aires City mayor (58% against), followed by the President (54% negativity) and the Buenos Aires Province governor (50% in the red). In Macri's case, the surveys show that the highly unfortunate showbiz-style invitations to the VIP tent for the papal Mass at the Monument to the Spaniards would have weighed significantly, though the catering of the scandal was the work and grace of the national government. They should have remembered that the Catholic Church banned the sale of plenary indulgences more than 400 years ago because of the scandals they caused. The correct or incorrect interpretation of what the papal visit left in society can be as crucial for the Government as for the opposition. For the old politics, there is a new scenario.