MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Milei says he has chosen a 2027 running mate amid rupture with his vice president

He said he has settled on his running mate for next year but prefers to keep the name to himself for now, in an interview published on Sunday by Diario Río Negro

Argentine President Javier Milei said he has already decided who will run alongside him as vice-presidential candidate in the October 2027 elections, while withholding the name, in remarks that come amid an open confrontation with his current vice president, Victoria Villarruel.

He said he has settled on his running mate for next year but prefers to keep the name to himself for now, in an interview published on Sunday by Diario Río Negro. The wording implies he will not repeat the 2023 ticket. Milei and Villarruel are not on speaking terms and criticize each other publicly; Cabinet Chief Diego Santilli called for her resignation after remarks she made about the president. Argentina's constitution permits one consecutive re-election.

Milei had already confirmed weeks earlier, at an event at the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange, that he would seek a second term. The new element is the choice of a vice-presidential candidate.

In the same interview he renewed his call to abolish the open, simultaneous and mandatory primaries, putting their cost to the state at 250 million dollars a year, and argued parties should settle internal contests without public funding. The primaries were suspended for the 2025 elections and their status for 2027 has not been settled.

The president also confirmed that the overhaul of the central bank's charter will be the government's main legislative initiative this semester. The bill, submitted to the Chamber of Deputies on Friday, establishes preserving the value of the currency as the institution's sole mission and bars all channels of financing to the Treasury. Central bank presidents need to be shielded from removal by whoever holds power, he said.

On the economy, Milei said results are exceeding expectations and credited his administration with maintaining a fiscal surplus, slowing inflation, lifting currency controls and rebuilding reserves. He projected the country will post three consecutive years of growth for the first time in fifteen years and said economic activity had surpassed its historical peak. These are the president's own assertions, without independent verification.

He acknowledged that part of the population has yet to feel the improvement, saying it is normal that some Argentines do not yet see the trend in their pockets, that fixing in two years what took a century to break requires time, and that he will not offer shortcuts.

Milei also highlighted the incentive regime for large investments, citing more than 46 billion dollars in approved projects and over 100 billion under evaluation, with particular weight in the Patagonian provinces. At the Stock Exchange he had pledged that, if growth holds, his government would by 2031 have returned 500 billion dollars to Argentines through tax cuts.