Diego César Santilli is an Argentine certified public accountant and politician affiliated with the Propuesta Republicana (PRO) party. He is currently the Deputy Chief of Government of the City of Buenos Aires. Since November 26, 2018, he has also served as Minister of Security for the City of Buenos Aires.
Diego César Santilli was born in the Palermo district of Buenos Aires on April 6, 1967. He is the son of River Plate club executive and former president of the National Bank of Argentina, Hugo Santilli. He studied at San Agustín School. At the age of 23, he earned a degree in Public Accounting from the University of Buenos Aires.
He was married to journalist Nancy Pazos, with whom he created Cultura Alimentaria para una Alimentación Inteligente, Responsable y Segura after their second child suffered from hemolytic uremic syndrome. He has three children: Teo, Nicanor, and Tonio. Since 2014, he has been married to Analía Maiorana.
Santilli has held various public positions. He was a board member at Banco Ciudad de Buenos Aires, a national congressman, and a city legislator, serving as first vice president of the Buenos Aires City Legislature. He also served as Director of Strategic Planning in the Secretariat of Production and Services of the City of Buenos Aires, and then as Coordinator of the General Directorate of Administration.
In 2003, he wrote Público y Eficiente about his administration at Banco Ciudad. In 2008, he published a children’s book called La Familia Vial, about traffic rules.
He was elected senator for the City of Buenos Aires in the 2013 legislative elections, a position he held for two years.
Larreta publicly asked Santilli to be his running mate for Deputy Chief of Government in the 2015 elections, calling him “my friend.” In the general election, the Larreta-Santilli PRO ticket led by about 20 points in the first round over ECO’s candidate Martín Lousteau. However, since they did not surpass 50% of the vote as required by city law, a runoff took place on July 19. The PRO defeated Lousteau by 51.64% to 48.36%, making Horacio Rodríguez Larreta and Diego Santilli the elected Chief and Deputy Chief of Government of Buenos Aires.
In June 2019, Rodríguez Larreta announced that they would run together again in that year’s election for reelection. This decision ruled out Santilli as a possible candidate for Chief of Government in 2023, meaning he will only be eligible to run in 2027.
In October 2019, the Larreta-Santilli ticket won in the first round, with 55.9% of the vote, defeating Matías Lammens’ list, which garnered 35%. Matías Tombolini came in third with 5.3%, and Gabriel Solano fourth with 3.6%.