Buenos Aires City mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta will become the first candidate for the 2023 presidential elections to launch a formal campaign tonight, Buenos Aires City government sources confirmed. 

The campaign will be launched with a “mysterious” social media post on Wednesday night. Tomorrow, he will give a public statement in the Buenos Aires suburb of Tres de Febrero, which is outside his current jurisdiction as Mayor, alongside members of his staff. His team will also release a personal video confirming his presidential run tomorrow at noon.  

Rodríguez Larreta, an ally of former president Mauricio Macri since the early 2000s, has been mayor of Buenos Aires since 2015. He is seen as representing the centre-right wing of opposition coalition Juntos por el Cambio.

Juntos por el Cambio officials have been entangled in party infighting ahead of October’s presidential elections. Rodríguez Larreta’s likely rivals include right-wing hardliner Patricia Bullrich, Macri’s former security minister, who implemented tough policies on crime and migration while in office. 

Other Juntos por el Cambio presidential hopefuls include former BA province governor and current congresswoman, María Eugenia Vidal. Elisa Carrió of Coalición Cívica (Civic Coalition), a smaller party within the opposition alliance, also announced her intention to run earlier this month, but is not expected to win.

Macri himself has not said whether he will run for re-election, who he might run with, or which candidate he will back.
A few weeks ago, Mauricio Macri met separately with Rodríguez Larreta and Bullrich in his holiday home in Villa La Angostura and posted photos with them. He has also been publicly active with Vidal.