Argentina’s Former President Macri Starts Campaign Tour Against Milei

For nearly two years, Mauricio Macri has played the role of supportive but quiet partner to Javier Milei. With Friday’s act in Vicente López, that calibration ended. The PRO is no longer hiding behind La Libertad Avanza, and a former president just put the next Banco Central appointment, his own identity, and the 2027 calendar on the table at the same time.

What did Macri actually announce?

At Club Centro Galicia in Olivos, Vicente López, Macri opened the “Próximo Paso” national tour with PRO mayors, provincial legislators, national deputies, councillors, and school-board representatives from Buenos Aires province. The event was closed to the press. Soledad Martínez, Vicente López mayor and PRO national vice-president, hosted alongside Cristian Ritondo, leader of the PRO bench in the Chamber of Deputies. The Rio Times, the Latin American financial news outlet, reports that the choice of venue was deliberate: Vicente López was the first Buenos Aires municipality the PRO governed under Jorge Macri, and where the party won its widest margins in recent legislative elections.

Macri’s most concrete proposal targeted the Banco Central. Picking up a column written by his former Economy Minister Nicolás Dujovne while Macri was in Cairo, he demanded the executive send Santiago Bausili’s nomination to the Senate, urged the chamber to approve it with permanent status, and required every 2027 presidential candidate to state publicly whether they would maintain him in the post. The objective, he said, is to anchor macroeconomic stability in rules that outlast administrations.

What does the 2027 question look like?

Macri opened with an ironic line about the press obsession with his personal life: “Some are perhaps more interested in me talking about love than about politics, but that we are not going to do.” The applause built. When supporters began chanting “Mauricio Presidente!” he asked for calm, saying “we are in 2026, this is not the moment to talk about elections, do not get ahead of yourselves.” Six months ago he would not have allowed even the speculation. The “Próximo Paso” framing, designed by PRO secretary general Fernando de Andreis and his political operators, is structured to keep options open while building territorial muscle.

PRO operators say the immediate target is candidates for mayor in the 150 largest cities in the country ahead of 2027, and 180 mayoral candidates in total to cover more than 70% of the national electorate. The presidential question remains open. De Andreis told reporters before leaving: “I am no one to open or close that kind of door.” The arithmetic of the next year and a half will determine whether Macri stays as kingmaker or steps forward himself.

How does this affect the Milei alliance?

Macri framed the PRO posture carefully: support for Milei without dissolving into him. “We supported this government before it was government. When the government stood alone, we were there. We did not hesitate. We backed the most difficult laws in service of change, without asking anything in return.” But: “The PRO says what it believes and does not betray what it thinks. That is closest to what I always called correct versus politically correct. Politically correct is a scam.” The implicit message is that Karina Milei’s recent decision to give the Intelligence Committee chair to Sebastián Pareja (LLA Buenos Aires) instead of Ritondo, after promising it to him, cost the PRO political capital.

Interior Minister Diego Santilli, formerly a senior PRO figure, did not attend. His absence was read as friction with the bonaerense PRO mayors, who have complained about LLA’s lack of cooperation in municipal councils and unresolved infrastructure debts. Ritondo himself acknowledged the tension publicly while calling for a “broad front” in Buenos Aires province that would still include La Libertad Avanza and the radicals. On Patricia Bullrich, who exited the PRO for LLA, he said the relationship is “cordial” but that she “made a mistake.”

The PRO Buenos Aires play, in numbers

PRO operators have launched “Radar PBA,” a data platform led by deputy Martín Yeza to map Buenos Aires province metrics. The framing positions the PRO as an alternative information source against Governor Axel Kicillof’s administration, which Macri called “a governor who believes the way to solve a problem is to expand the state infinitely.”

What about Kicillof and the Peronist field?

Macri singled out Buenos Aires governor Axel Kicillof as the principal political target. “If that is their star candidate, they certainly lose,” he said. “And if he wins, they will lose again because they will never be voted for again, definitively. Let us hope Peronism finds a better candidate than Kicillof. For everyone’s sake.” The line drew laughs from the room and set the tone: PRO sees the next election as a fight to keep the political map open, not just to defeat Peronism.

Martínez, the host, framed the PRO’s role inside the Buenos Aires province: “We suffer a governor who believes that solving a problem requires infinitely expanding the state. Where PRO mayors govern, people live better. Let the PRO of Buenos Aires province lead the change, so this province can definitively leave kirchnerismo behind.” The implicit candidacy logic is that the future PRO national candidate should emerge from those in the room, which was read as an indirect challenge to absent ministers like Santilli.

What should investors and analysts watch next?

• Senate handling of Bausili’s nomination. Whether the executive actually sends the pliego, and whether the Senate confirms it with permanence, is the cleanest test of Macri’s institutional ask.
• Mendoza and Santa Fe tour stops. The May 22 Mendoza event and June 5 Santa Fe visit will signal whether the PRO machinery can produce equivalent turnout outside Buenos Aires.
• 2027 candidate signalling. Macri’s posture toward Bullrich, Larreta, Ritondo, and other figures will indicate whether he sees himself as kingmaker or candidate.
• Buenos Aires province alliance. Whether PRO and La Libertad Avanza build a single anti-Peronist front for the provincial election is the highest-stakes near-term test.
• Caputo route auctions. The May 15 adjudication of 1,800 kilometres of road concessions to private operators sets a parallel privatisation marker that Macri’s allies will use to claim policy continuity with the original Cambiemos agenda.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Macri running in 2027?

He has not decided. Friday he explicitly told supporters not to chant his name and said the focus is 2026, not the election. His tour structure, demand for institutional anchors, and increased visibility all keep the option open. PRO secretary general Fernando de Andreis said he is not the person to open or close that door.

Who is Santiago Bausili?

Bausili is the current president of Argentina’s Banco Central de la República Argentina (BCRA), appointed by Milei in 2023. He previously served in Macri’s Treasury team and is close to Economy Minister Luis Caputo. His nomination has not been formally sent to the Senate for permanent confirmation. Macri wants that to happen now, with a binding commitment from all 2027 candidates.

Is the PRO breaking with Milei?

No. Macri reaffirmed alignment with the fiscal-balance, deregulation, and macroeconomic stability agenda. The differentiation is identity-based: the PRO insists on its own existence and voice rather than dissolving into La Libertad Avanza. The tension is over distribution of political space, not over the underlying economic programme.

Connected Coverage

This story extends our Argentina political-economy cluster. The Milei reform trajectory sits in our Ley Bases tracker. The macro backdrop is detailed in our inflation and reserves readout. The AySA water privatisation launched the same week sits in our AySA tender note. The mining-investment push sits in our RIGI mining readout.

Reported by The Rio Times — Latin American financial news. Filed May 16, 2026.