Milei Eliminates Ministries and Turns Santilli into a Superminister: Total Control of Congress and the Provinces

President Javier Milei performed major surgery on his own cabinet. Through Decree 571/2026, published this Friday in the Official Gazette, he restructured the Executive Branch from top to bottom: eliminated key ministries, reduced the cabinet to eight portfolios, and, most strikingly, granted Diego Santilli unprecedented power as Chief of Cabinet. Now, Santilli not only coordinates the administration: he controls relations with governors, lobbying in Congress, and even the distribution of national funds.

The executive order eliminates the Ministry of the Interior and transfers all its responsibilities to the Chief of Cabinet. In practice, Santilli becomes a sort of superminister with direct influence over the country’s legislative life. The new legal text establishes that the Chief of Cabinet has the authority to «coordinate relations between the National Executive Branch and both Chambers of the H. Congress of the Nation,» with the explicit goal of ensuring the «swiftest processing of messages from the President of the Nation that promote legislative initiatives.» Translation: Milei is putting all his eggs in one basket to speed up reforms that are stalled in committees.

The official argument is that the changes are «urgent for governance.» To handle such a volume of responsibilities, Santilli will have two deputy chiefs: Guillermo Devitt as Deputy Chief of Cabinet for General Affairs, and Gustavo Coria as Deputy Chief of Cabinet for Interior Affairs, the latter tasked with absorbing political negotiations with governors that were previously handled by the Interior Ministry. Milei eliminates intermediaries and unifies control of the administration with political leadership.

The restructuring also creates new Presidential Secretariats with ministerial rank: the Presidential Spokesperson’s Office, headed by Adrián Ravier, and the Communication and Media Office, led by Fabián Fernández. Both were already in office but were formalized this Friday.

But the juiciest part lies in the new powers of the Chief of Cabinet: Santilli can now intervene in the «drafting and oversight of the execution of the Budget Law» and in the distribution of «national revenues.» This gives him unprecedented financial firepower to discipline or woo provinces according to the legislative needs of the ruling party. In other words, the Chief of Cabinet holds the pen to reward friendly governors and punish dissenters, all to ensure Milei’s projects pass through Congress.

The use of an executive order to reform the state structure bypasses prior legislative debate on the organization of the Executive itself. It is a tool this administration has already used to impose fundamental changes under the umbrella of emergency. With this new design, the government bets on absolute verticalism where the Chief of Cabinet acts as the great funnel of national politics, preparing the ground for a parliamentary initiative that, according to the decree, seeks to achieve «coherence in the administration’s actions and increase its effectiveness» in the face of a Congress that remains the main obstacle to its economic program.

The result? A superminister with total control over relations with the provinces, legislative strategy, the Budget, and presidential communication. Milei gets rid of intermediaries and concentrates power in a single hand. The question is whether such verticalism will end up generating more friction than solutions. For now, the ruling party celebrates the move as a necessary step to unblock reforms. The opposition, meanwhile, already speaks of an «institutional coup» against federalism and the balance of powers.

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