Buenos Aires mayor and opposition figurehead, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, has appointed top economist Martín Redrado to his team in a move signalling his possible cabinet lineup if he were to win the 2023 presidential elections. 

Redrado will join his government in the newly-created role of Secretary of Strategic Affairs. Redrado was the president of the Central Bank between 2004 and 2010, during the Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner presidencies. 

Following a tempestuous relationship with CFK, he resigned in 2010 amid a dispute in which he refused to transfer Central Bank reserves to a fund created by Kirchner to pay interest on external debt. A few years later, he joined Sergio Massa in his party, Frente Renovador. 

“[Redrado] will work with multilateral credit agencies to improve financing of productive sectors, boost exports, and collaborate with local and regional supply chains,” Rodríguez Larreta said in a press conference this morning. Observers are interpreting his decision to appoint Redrado as an indication of his economic vision for the nation ahead of a likely presidential campaign in 2023. 

Rodríguez Larreta, of the right-wing party Propuesta Republicana (Republican Proposal or PRO), is a Harvard Business School graduate and career politician who has been mayor of Buenos Aires since 2015. He has expressed his intention to run for the presidency in 2023. His party is a member of the Juntos por el Cambio coalition.

Rodríguez Larreta also appointed PRO deputies Silvia Lospennato and Waldo Wolff. Lospenatto, who advocated for the legalization of abortion, will join the city’s Gender Policy Research and Evaluation council. Waldo Wolff, a conservative known for being aggressive towards his opponents, will join as Public Affairs Secretary. While Lospennato will perform her duties in the City ad honorem and continue to work in Congress, Wolff’s role will be full time. 

In a press conference flanked by his new team members in Buenos Aires botanical gardens, Rodríguez Larreta described them as “three public officers with trajectory, dedication and willingness to continue to transform the City”. 

The mayor said that the team reshuffle would not incur new costs for the government, amid officialist criticism that newly-restored federal tax funding might be used for political grandstanding. He also rejected president Alberto Fernández’s plan to pay the contributions in the form of bonds.

Rodríguez Larreta ended by reaffirming his aim to become president in 2023. “The Kirchnerist way of thinking about power is coming to an end,” he said. “Each day, there are more Argentines who wish to be part of generation 23 and to put an end to the decadence we have lived under for decades.”