Juntos por el Cambio (JxC) presidential candidate Patricia Bullrich announced that Buenos Aires City mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, whom she defeated in the August JxC primaries, would be appointed Chief of Staff if she wins the election.

“We have to be fast and efficient. A team that hits the field and scores goals every day because Argentines can’t take it anymore,” Bullrich said in a joint press conference at the Botanical Garden in Buenos Aires with Larreta and her vice-presidential candidate, Luis Petri.

Multiple times during the conference, Bullrich recognized Larreta’s “managerial capacity” and said that she offered the role to her former primaries rival to carry out “change.”

When he took the floor, Larreta reminisced about the primaries, where he lost with 11.2% of the vote against Bullrich’s 16.8%.

“Personally, the election was a blow for me, but we have to move forward,” he said. “I am convinced that my mission is to help transform Argentina.”

Larreta said that Argentina is facing “two populisms,” referencing two of the main presidential candidates: Economy Minister Sergio Massa, from ruling coalition Unión por la Patria (UxP), and far-right economist Javier Milei, from La Libertad Avanza (LLA).

“They have already shown how destructive they are, and it is clear that the option for real change is JxC.”

Most of the polls published after the primaries have Bullrich coming in third behind Milei and Massa, a result that would leave her out of an eventual run-off.

The announcement comes only eight days before the presidential elections. When asked about the decision to publicly say that Larreta would be a part of her government now, Bullrich said that “one has to have a sense of timing in elections.”

“You have to know when to make announcements that generate strong confidence in society,” she said. “I believe society is defining its vote in this last week, as it is always the case.”