The close relationship between Argentine President Javier Milei and his dogs, his “four-legged children” as he calls them, has become the subject of jokes, sarcasm from opponents, and even journalistic questions, which have the gift of irritating the public. presidency.
Twice this week, presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni lost his temper when journalists asked him, during the daily press briefing, if Javier Milei has four, five dogs, or if “he has four and sees five “, which would make him someone “who sees something that does not correspond to reality”.
The question is not innocent. She refers to one of the dogs, “Conan”, who is believed to have died in 2017, long before the ultraliberal economist entered politics. A Conan with whom Milei “communicates”, as claimed in an unauthorized biography published in 2023. A “communication” never confirmed by Milei, even if a medium specializing in “animal telepathy” admitted to having given Milei “help with work of mourning.”
“What you’re suggesting seems to Me to be a lack of respect, to describe the president as a person who speaks with things that don’t exist. It’s a totally disrespectful question, and it’s interfering in his family,” he said. the spokesperson scolded Thursday in response to the journalist.
The question followed a scathing exchange between Milei and his predecessor Alberto Fernandez, who in a tweet Wednesday denounced Milei’s “inhumane, brutal and unnecessary” austerity policies. Adding: “Me, my dog, who is alive, does not advise me, and the + Forces of the sky + (a favorite expression of Milei, Editor’s note) do not send me signs”.
Milei, often described as an eccentric personality, with a secret social life, hyperactive on social networks, has spoken on several occasions with emotion about his dogs, enormous English mastiffs weighing 100 kg each, with whom he lived alone until the presidential campaign 2023. The known official version is that they were cloned from the defunct “Conan”.
These dogs, named after liberal economists Milton (for Friedman), Murray (for Rothbard), Robert, Lucas (Robert Lucas), live in kennels set up in the presidential residence of Olivos, according to Javier Milei. He revealed to CNN in early April that his morning routine is to spend some time with these “five” dogs before going to work.
But as they have not been seen for years – the last photo dates back to 4-5 years ago – doubt plagues the Argentine press: are there really five, four? Is Conan alive, or virtual?
“If the president says there are five, there are five and period,” the spokesperson said on Monday, already in response to a question about dogs. “I don’t really understand what difference it makes whether the president has four, five dogs, or 43 rabbits.”
“It seems like it’s a joke. But here there is a subject which is the mental health of the president”, commented to AFP Juan Luis Gonzalez, the author of the 2023 biography, entitled “El Loco ” (the fool). “We can understand a lot of what the government is doing through Milei’s instability.”
Asked at the end of 2023 during a talk show about his relationship with his dogs, rumors of communication with a canine afterlife, Milei shrugged his shoulders and smiled: “Let them say what they want. To each their own notice”.
In the meantime, social networks and opponents are having a field day about dogs and Conan.
Just like the students, who on Tuesday demonstrated en masse in defense of the university: “Without science, no Conan!”, “The public university exists, Conan no!”, said some signs in the processions, where a song hilariously demanded “a minute of silence for Conan”. When others “walked Conan”… on an empty leash.
