Buenos Aires Herald 
Updated 12.25 p.m.
The government has named Lisandro Catalán interior minister and will include him in the new roundtable it will establish with governors, Chief of Staff Guillermo Francos announced on Wednesday.
Catalán, who up until now was serving as deputy chief of staff, will join President Javier Milei, Economy Minister Luis Caputo, and Francos in the roundtable that is set to reach out to “like-minded” provincial leaders.
In a separate post, Presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni announced that the president will present the 2026 budget bill in a televised speech set to air Monday at 9 p.m. There are still no details on the location from where Milei will speak.
Both announcements come in the aftermath of the ruling party’s defeat in the Buenos Aires province elections, as it trys to regain momentum heading into the October midterms. Previously, the government had also decided to create a political desk to serve as a national politics forum within the Executive Branch. Its members are President Milei, his sister and Presidency Secretary Karina Milei, Lower House Speaker Martín Menem, and top presidential advisor Santiago Caputo.
A response to governors’ requests
Francos made Catalán’s naming public in a post on X, adding that the government was “willing to deepen ties with provinces that share the spirit of change” in order to implement the “structural reforms” they have been working on.
Working under Francos, Catalán was already the main figure in charge of holding negotiations with governors on behalf of the national administration. President Milei demoted the interior ministry to a secretary under the purview of the chief of staff after Guillermo Francos was named to the post in May of last year.
According to Herald sister publication Ámbito, the decision to reinstate the interior ministry is in response to demands made by provincial leaders, who were requesting that dialogue with the government improve. One of the areas of contention is the national budget for the coming year, a bill the president intends to present on Monday.
The Milei administration has been working without an approved budget ever since coming into office. Upon entering office, they renewed the budget the Alberto Fernández administration had filed for 2023. In December of last year, Milei decreed that the 2023 national budget would be renewed for an unprecedented second time.
The extension meant he would govern in 2025 using the same budget as in the final year of Alberto Fernández’s government. Repeating the budget gives the government leeway to assign additional funding at its discretion throughout the year
