Martina Jaureguy 
Nicolás Posse has resigned as chief of staff of the Milei administration and Interior Minister Guillermo Francos will replace him, an official release announced on Monday night. More changes in the government are expected in the coming days.
Francos will also continue to manage his former post, as the interior ministry will become a secretariat under the chief of staff, turning him into the most powerful minister of President Javier Milei’s government given the political leverage of these two sectors.
“Dr. Guillermo Francos will become the chief of staff to give the office more political reach,” the release said.
“Francos will bring professionalism, expertise, and political capability to the chief of staff office after his successful role as interior minister,” the release said, “having been one of those behind the enterprise that took Javier Milei to the presidency.”
It also pointed to “his capability to administrate and generate consensus.”
Francos was in charge of negotiating with governors and the opposition the votes required to Milei’s flagship reform bill, known as the Ley Bases, in the Lower House in April. Negotiations to obtain a final version in the Senate are still ongoing.
“The president chose me because he realizes that Argentine politics are too complicated and he doesn’t understand them,” Francos told Rivadavia radio station on Tuesday morning. “I have higher chances of establishing dialogue, and that’s the reason behind the proposal.”
He added that other cabinet positions will be under revision and that “some of them will remain, while others will change.”
However, Posse will not leave the government. According to another release published on Monday night, he will continue to support Milei’s project “under a new role, which will be announced in the coming days.” It added that Posse’s resignation was motivated by a “difference in criteria” between what the government’s path forward should be and what his tasks were.
In addition to Posse’s departure as chief of staff, Federal Intelligence Agency head Silvestre Sívori also resigned. Sívori has strong ties with Posse. Speaking off the record, government officials told reporters that Milei asked Posse and Sívori to resign over accusations that they spied on other members of his administration. No one has publicly spoken about this yet.
It remains unclear whether Posse will stay in his position as director of national oil company YPF, a role he took on in December. Posse’s press team did not immediately respond to the Herald’s request for comment.
Francos gave a press conference Tuesday morning after having an informal meeting with the ministers at Casa Rosada, where he said that “the government structure needs to be revised.”
“We came into power as a coalition without much history or political experience, too many tasks were concentrated on the chief of staff, which I think should be distributed amongst other ministries,” he stated.
“We will decentralize [those tasks] so I can fulfill the duties President Milei has entrusted me with.”
Francos also confirmed that former Central Bank President Federico Sturzenegger will join the cabinet. “The name of his ministry will be defined in the coming days, but it will have to do with state modernization and economic deregulation,” he said.
Sturzenegger is an economist who has worked closely with Milei since he took office, despite not having an official role in the government initially. In January, he was named head of the “Transitory Unit for Economic Deregulation.”
Along with the omnibus bill, Sturzenegger co-authored Milei’s massive presidential decree that deregulated the Argentine economy. Although the Senate voted for the decree’s repeal, its resolutions still stand, as both chambers must reject a decree in order for it to be struck down.
This is not the first major figure to leave their government post. In March, Guillermo Ferraro left the former infrastructure ministry — which has since become a secretariat under the economy ministry — after rumors that he had leaked government information to the press. He is the only minister to have resigned from his position so far.
Days after Ferraro’s departure, Milei unexpectedly announced in the middle of a TV interview that he was removing former Labor Secretary Omar Yasin after an uproar created when senior government officials were given a pay raise amid the economic crisis. Milei blamed Yasin for the decision, although it wasn’t under his purview. Mariana Hortal Sueldo also left her position as labor undersecretary after this.
In February, Oscar Giordano forcibly resigned as head of the social security administration ANSES after his partner, Hacemos Coalición Federal deputy Alejandra Torres, voted against the first iteration of the Ley Bases in February. Over a dozen other government officials have also left the government in recent months.
You may also be interested in: Milei promises to lower taxes, expand May Pact after Ley Bases approval
