Argentina’s new leader aims for major changes
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ARGENTINA’S new pro-market president-elect Mauricio Macri yesterday promised deep change in Latin America’s third-biggest economy and called for unity after his narrow election win laid bare the country’s divisions.
Macri, 56, the favored candidate of big businesses and foreign investors, beat his leftist rival Daniel Scioli by less than three percentage points in Sunday’s vote, ending years of rule by the populist Peronist movement in a major political shift.
In his first news conference as president-elect, he vowed to get straight to work on an economic action plan to tackle slowing growth and soaring inflation.
But he acknowledged the need to reach out to rivals, as analysts warned he may struggle to get his liberal economic reforms past hostile lawmakers.
“We are going to work actively to form an economic cabinet as soon as possible,” said the gray-haired former football executive.
“We need to know what state the public finances are in, to know where to start on December 10,” when he will take over from the leftist Peronist President Cristina Kirchner.
Breaking with 12 years of leftist rule, Macri has vowed to ease foreign trade and lift dollar restrictions. Scioli has warned this risks triggering a major devaluation of the peso, weakening ordinary Argentines’ buying power.
Macri promised to “build bridges” with rivals to leave behind “the tensions we have experienced in recent years.”
“I have full confidence that this change of era will be a profound one.”
Macri’s victory marks a sharp political shift in Argentina.
It breaks the grip of Peronism, the broad populist movement that has dominated Argentine politics for much of the past 70 years.
Macri and Scioli fought a tense battle for votes in a country largely weary after 12 years under Kirchner and her predecessor and late husband, Nestor Kirchner.
Official results gave Macri 51.4 percent of the votes and 48.6 percent for Scioli, with 99 percent of ballots counted.
Macri said he would meet with Kirchner today.
Scioli conceded defeat on Sunday but others in the Peronist camp were more defiant.
Kirchner’s chief adviser Anibal Fernandez called the result “a draw.”
“There was a very small difference” in the number of votes, he told reporters yesterday. “It is not a difference that shows we were wrong.”
Macri is expected to have warmer relations with countries such as Britain and the United States.
Kirchner has had sharp words for them at times, including with Britain in the territorial dispute over the Falkland Islands.
“We want to build good relations with all of Latin America and with the world,” Macri said.
However, he came out fighting against Venezuela’s left-wing leaders, whom he accuses of abusing the rights of political opposition members.
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