Layoffs and nepotism in Macri's Argentina: austerity for thee, not for me.

Amid a wave of 25,000 government layoffs in Argentina since President Mauricio Macri took office three months ago, numerous high-ranking officials in both the Macri administration and in its right-wing "Let's Change" coalition have been caught hiring or promoting close friends and relatives to highly-paid government posts.

In the Legislative Branch Vice President Gabriela Michetti, known for her frequent use of the buzzword "transparency," was quick to use her dual capacity as President of the Argentine Senate to dismiss 2,400 employees she considered "political appointees." The affected employees described the layoffs as a "witch hunt" since nearly all were members of the opposition FpV or its allied parties.

While doing so, however, she promoted her cousin, Alejandra Illia, and her best friend, María Conte Grand, to Senate administrative posts paying 45,000 pesos ($3,000) a month - three times the median full-time salary in Argentina. Several senators in Macri's Let's Change coalition obtained Michetti's approval to do likewise.

María Conte Grand is the wife of syndicated right-wing op-ed writer Luis Majul, who earned a reputation as a mudslinger against Macri's predecessor, former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, while receiving over 14 million pesos ($2.5 million at the time) in unspecified municipal publicity contracts under then-Mayor Macri. Numerous similar municipal publicity contracts signed by Macri as mayor are currently under investigation.

The Provisional President of the Argentine Senate, Federico Pinedo, followed Michetti's example and hired two relatives (including his brother, Enrique Pinedo) to posts paying 35,000 pesos ($2,300) a month. Pinedo also used his prerogatives to bill the Senate for 100,000 pesos in security costs for a vacation stay in scenic Villa La Angostura.

Something similar took place in the Argentine Chamber of Deputies (the lower house), although unlike his affable counterpart in the Senate, Federico Pinedo, Speaker Emilio Monzó announced 2,000 layoffs of house clerks and staff (out of 5,000) using insults and veiled threats. This, however, did not stop Monzó from approving numerous plum jobs for relatives of at least six legislators in his "Let's Change" caucus.

But the example for both austerity and nepotism was arguably set by the Executive Branch itself. While dismissing 120 Casa Rosada (presidential office) employees, President Macri's own press secretary, Iván Pavlovsky, had his own wife, Marina Klemensiewicz, appointed Undersecretary of Habitat and Housing despite having no experience in the area. Fernando de Andreis, Macri's Chief of Staff, is his brother-in-law from his first marriage.

Macri's cabinet followed suit. His own "terminators," Interior Minister Rogelio Frigerio and Modernization Minister (a post created by Macri) Andrés Ibarra, each put at least one family member in hierarchical government posts: Mario Frigerio at AFTIC (Argentina's FEC) and María Piccolomini (Ibarra's wife) in Congress. Frigerio famously described the 25,000 laid-off employees as "junk contracts," and warned the number will reach 70,000 by year's end.

Labor Minister Jorge Triaca approved the firing of 70% of the inspectors in the National Farm Workers' Registry; but hired Juan Carlos Paulucci, jr. as Inspector General for the Social Security Secretariat headed by his father, Juan Carlos Paulucci, sr. The Social Security Agency itself (ANSES) is headed by a known privatization proponent, Emilio Basavilbaso, who's also a cousin of Iván Kerr, Undersecretary of Housing.

Anxious to bolster his reputation as a law-and-order man, President Macri named Eugenio Burzaco as Secretary of Security. Secretary Burzaco is the younger brother of Alejandro Burzaco, who was arrested in Italy last year at the request of U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch for having bribed FIFA officials millions to secure broadcast rights for this year's World Cup. Burzaco's broadcaster, TyC, is co-owned by the Clarín Media Group, whose favorable coverage of Macri proved decisive in his narrow win last November.

Nor were Argentina's numerous government scientific institutes immune from the nepotism bug: these include the appointment of Amadeo Nicora (Agriculture Minister Ricardo Buryaile's cousin) as head of the National Agricultural Technology Institute (INTA); Javier Ibáñez, a violent soccer hooligan close to Vice President Michetti, as head of the National Industrial Technology Institute (INTI); and Rodrigo de Loredo, State Media boss Oscar Aguad's brother-in-law, as head of the Argentine Satellite Enterprise (ARSAT).

Nepotism in the Macri administration reached truly royal proportions, however, when it was discovered in February that he had hired Inés Zorreguieta to a 40,000-peso ($2,600) clerical post in the National Council on Social Policy, a presidential office located in the Casa Rosada. Zorreguieta, who suffers from mental illness and has few qualifications, is the younger sister of Queen Máxima of the Netherlands.

Government nepotism is nothing new to Argentina, or indeed most other countries. But in the Macri administration's case, plum jobs paying 35-45,000 pesos to often unqualified family and friends of high-ranking officials are being dispensed while 70,000 other public employees are being deprived of paychecks that average no more than 10,000 pesos ($650). These layoffs have exacerbated a deteriorating job market already reeling from austerity policies under Macri, with 45,000 private sector jobs lost and a sharp rise in inflation.

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