Diego Santilli moved the government's internal rupture onto institutional ground by publicly calling on Victoria Villarruel to resign as vice president. The cabinet chief reacted to statements in which she questioned Javier Milei's condition and urged her to “step aside.” The demand was no longer merely criticism from government legislators: it now came from the official responsible for coordinating the executive branch.
In remarks to Radio Mitre, Santilli described Villarruel's message as “outrageous,” “absurd” and lacking in common sense. He also said her words amounted to disrespect and insults unbecoming of someone who had joined Milei on the presidential ticket. His response went beyond rejecting the content of her statement: he questioned whether the vice president should remain inside an administration that, in his view, she does not support.
The cabinet chief presented resignation as the consequence of that disagreement. “If someone does not agree, then they should step aside,” he said, before asking what reason there would be to remain in a place where one believes one should not be. Santilli completed the challenge by proposing a political route: Villarruel should leave office, organise her own project and compete on that basis.
The escalation began with a post by the vice president on X. Villarruel said she was genuinely concerned about the President's condition and attributed to him “imaginary persecutions” that, she wrote, he repeats both inside and outside Argentina. Her intervention referred to messages from lawmaker Lilia Lemoine that Milei had reposted and that the vice president described as nonsense and fabrications.
The weight of the demand also stems from the positions held by the two figures in the confrontation. Villarruel reached the vice presidency through the popular vote as Milei's running mate, while Santilli holds an appointed position within the executive branch. The cabinet chief's demand therefore carries a different scope from earlier calls by La Libertad Avanza legislators: it directly pits two national authorities with different sources of legitimacy and different institutional functions against one another.
Santilli did not announce a procedure to remove Villarruel or any subsequent administrative measure; he made an explicit political demand that she resign. At the end of the statements, the vice president remained in office and had not agreed to take the step requested of her. Her pending response will determine whether the conflict remains a public dispute inside the government or whether Villarruel takes up the challenge to build and contest power with a separate project.
