BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentine President Javier Miley's chief of staff resigned Friday, less than a week after the ruling party won a new mandate to accelerate its sweeping reform program in crucial midterm elections.
Guillermo Francos, a 75-year-old career politician with decades of government experience, said in a statement that he was resigning so that Miley “can face the phase of government that begins after national elections without restrictions.”
Francos' departure, after weeks of speculation, was expected to herald a broader cabinet shake-up, as often happens in Argentina after elections. Interior Minister Guillermo Catalan followed suit on Friday.
Buoyed by his party's surprise landslide victory in Sunday's legislative elections and a pledge of $40 billion in funding from the friendly Trump administration, Miley announced that his chief spokesman, Manuel Adorni – the ideological champion of the president's agenda known for his combative news conferences filled with sarcastic one-liners – would replace the level-headed Francos as Cabinet chief.
Many far-right supporters of Milea's anti-establishment platform were suspicious of Francos, who belongs to Argentina's traditional political elite. But political rivals and legislators hostile to Miley's program considered him a confidant.
Francos was named chief of staff last year as the fiery political outsider sought the help of a seasoned negotiator to persuade Congress to pass sweeping economic reform measures to trim the budget and encourage foreign investment. Before his promotion, Francos served as interior minister, responsible for managing Miley's tense relations with provinces opposed to government budget cuts.
Miley, in a statement, thanked Francos for “his service to the nation during the past two years of profound reforms that have required constant dialogue with various political forces.”
He said that starting Monday, Adorni would take on the role of chief of staff in response to his party's resounding victory that exceeded pollsters' expectations, energized faltering reforms and gave their scrappy Libertarian party the votes it needs in Congress to defend presidential vetoes.
“This change is in response to the election results, the need to renew political dialogue and the start of the second phase,” Miley said.
Although Milei's La Libertad Avanza bloc has increased its numbers in Congress enough to prevent the left-wing opposition from passing spending measures that would undermine austerity policies, the party still lacks a majority.
To reform Argentina's economy within a free market framework, Miley recognized the need to create alliances with centrist parties and win over powerful provincial governors.
On the agenda will be liberalizing Argentina's labor market and simplifying its labyrinthine tax system – big goals that have previously irritated right-wing governments. To demonstrate his openness to dialogue, Miley welcomed 20 of Argentina's 24 governors to the presidential headquarters on Thursday.
The four governors excluded from the meeting represented Peronism, a populist opposition movement that is widely blamed for leading to the economic crisis that Mile inherited in 2023.
In a television interview with a local channel late Thursday, Mieli defended his decision to expel the Peronist governors, saying: “It is very difficult to have a rational dialogue. We cannot sit down at the negotiating table with people for whom two plus two does not equal four.”
