Ricardo López Murphy

Originally a member of the centrist Radical Civic Union (UCR), López Murphy describes himself ideologically as a republican liberal. Since 2020, he has chaired his own political party, United Republicans.

He left RECREAR in April 2008, citing differences over party list strategy, and in December established Federal Convergency. He ran for Mayor of Buenos Aires in 2011 on this ticket, but obtained only 1.4% of the vote.

He later teamed with Mauricio Macri in 2005 to create a new center-right coalition called Republican Proposal (PRO), which tacitly supported his unsuccessful second bid to the presidency in the 2007 presidential election. López Murphy did poorly, gaining just 1% of the vote; PRO, however, did somewhat better in provincial and congressional elections, and won the mayoral election in Buenos Aires that year.

He founded a conservative liberal political party, Recreate for Growth (RECREAR), in 2002, and ran for the presidency in the April 2003 elections, finishing third behind Carlos Menem and Néstor Kirchner, with 16.3% of the popular vote. López Murphy won abroad. He was the favorite of the hundreds of Argentines who voted in the United States, Italy, Great Britain, Spain, Chile, Uruguay and Brazil.

Enjoying little political support from President, Fernando de la Rúa, he was fired within two weeks after a wave of protest over his proposed fiscal austerity project, by which he sought to prevent the 2001 economic crisis but which sharply cut education spending.

In 1999, he entered politics when he was appointed Minister of Defense as a member of the Radical Civic Union (UCR). He remained in this position until 2001 when he briefly took the position of Minister of Economy in the government of Argentina.

López Murphy was born in Adrogué, Buenos Aires Province of Basque and Irish descent. He was named Ricardo after Argentine politician Ricardo Balbín (who was his godfather) and Hipólito after radical president Hipólito Yrigoyen. He attended the National University of La Plata, where he was awarded the title degree in Economics, comprising four years of study in 1975. He then obtained a Master's degree in Economics from the University of Chicago in 1980.

Ricardo Hipólito López Murphy (born 10 August 1951) is an Argentine economist, academic and politician. He served as Minister of Defense and Minister of Economy during the presidency of Fernando de la Rúa. His time at the helm of the economy portfolio lasted only 15 days, as he was forced to leave office after announcing an unpopular austerity plan. Since 2021, he has been a National Deputy elected in Buenos Aires for the Juntos por el Cambio coalition.