Diego Santilli
Diego César Santilli is an Argentine accountant and politician. A member of the political coalition La Libertad Avanza, Santilli has served in a number of posts in the Buenos Aires city government, most notably as Deputy Deputy Chief of Government under Horacio Rodríguez Larreta from 2015 to 2021.
Early life
Diego César Santilli was born in the neighborhood of Palermo, Buenos Aires on April 6, 1967 within a family of Italian origin. He is son of the former president of River Plate and Banco Nación, Hugo Santilli. His mother María Luisa Forchieri, is a tarotologist.He attended Saint Augustine School and received his degree in accountancy at the age of 23 from the Faculty of Economic Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires; he also pursued marketing studies at the University of California, Berkeley.
Political career
Diego Santilli has held several public offices in Buenos Aires City, the most important being manager of the Buenos Aires City Bank and vice president of the City Legislature, elected in Buenos Aires City elections|2003]. From 2009 to 2013 he served as Minister of Environment and Public Spaces of the City of Buenos Aires. He is coordinator of Asociación ''Buenos Aires en RED'' and, together with his wife, founder of CANI. In 2008 he wrote a children's book in order to raise awareness about the importance of following traffic norms.In Argentine legislative election|2013], he was elected National Senator for the City of Buenos Aires; he was second in Republican Proposal's list, under Gabriela Michetti. Both Michetti and Santilli went on to leave the Senate to assume office in executive branches before the end of their term.
Deputy Chief of Government
In 2015, shortly after taking office as Senator, he resigned from this position after Horacio Rodríguez Larreta publicly asked him to be his running mate in that year's mayoral election. In the first round, the Larreta-Santilli PRO ticket achieved a lead of approximately 20 percentage points over their rival, Martín Lousteau of the ECO coalition. As no ticket surpassed the 50% threshold, a runoff was held on 19 July. The PRO ticket won by a narrow margin, with 51.64% of the vote against Lousteau's 48.36%, electing Rodríguez Larreta and Santilli as Chief and Deputy Chief of Government, respectively.In June 2019, Rodríguez Larreta announced that they would run together again for re-election. This decision meant Santilli would be ineligible to run for the top office in the 2023 election, as he would be seeking a second term as vice mayor. He ultimately confirmed his candidacy. In October 2019, the Larreta-Santilli ticket was victorious in the first round, avoiding a runoff by securing 55.9% of the vote. Their main opponent, Matías Lammens of the Frente de Todos, obtained 35%.