In a historic runoff election Sunday, Argentina elected Buenos Aires’ pro-business mayor Mauricio Macri over Daniel Scioli, a member of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s Victory Front party.
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Macri said on Tuesday that Susana Malcorra will be his top foreign representative after his December 10 inauguration. It also cuts a sharp contrast with Economic Minister Axel Kicillof, a top official in the Fernandez administration who wielded enormous power over key policies, such as the decision not to negotiate with a group of creditors in the US that took Argentina to court in NY and won.
Macri likely knows both of those moves will sit well with USA leadership, and reviving the strained relationship between the US and Argentina is one of his goals.
By law, Congress has to approve any measures regarding the country’s debt.
Many investors in Argentina and internationally are hopeful Macri’s election will usher in an era of pro-business economics and shift away from Fernandez’s populist policies. Today, the difference is perhaps as much as 40 percent, due to capital controls that have limited the flow of capital out of the country-and US dollars into the hands of everyday Argentines.
Macri held over 51 percent of the vote with 98 percent of the vote counted. He is the former boss of the popular football, or soccer, club Boca Juniors.
Though Scioli narrowly led voting in August’s “jungle” primary and the election’s first round on October 25, the runoff gave Macri, leading a broad center-right coalition called Cambiemos (Let’s change!), the chance for a direct challenge to twelve years of Kirchner rule. (Kirchnerism was based on subsidies for the poor, the increase of tariffs on imports and the privatization of the oil company YPF).
Despite the challenges, Macri’s win signals a clear end to the era of Fernandez and her late husband.
Argentina has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with other leftists in the region, including those in Cuba, Venezuela and Ecuador.
On Monday, he reiterated his promise to push to expel Venezuela from the South American trade bloc known as Mercosur because of the jailing of opposition leaders.
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Macri’s wife is a model, a Muslim, and an immigrant from Lebanon.
