BUENOS AIRES // President-elect Mauricio Macri’s promised to revitalise Argentina’s sagging economy with free-market reforms and improve strained relations with the United States resonated with voters, carrying him to an election victory that ended 12 years of rule by president Cristina Kirchner and her late husband.
With 98 per cent of the vote counted from Sunday’s election, Mr Macri had 51.5 per cent support compared to 48.5 per cent for ruling party candidate Daniel Scioli, Mrs Kirchner’s hand-chosen successor, who has conceded defeat.
“Today is a historic day,” Mr Macri crowed while his supporters celebrated. “It’s the changing of an era.”
The era he hopes to end is that of Mrs Kirchner and her late husband and predecessor Nestor Kirchner who rewrote Argentina’s social contract and dominated the nation’s political scene with a mix of patronage, charisma and withering attacks on opponents. Mrs Kirchner battled international creditors, had strained relations with Washington and allied her country with late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez and his successor Nicolas Maduro.
During the election campaign, Mr Macri vowed he would listen more and talk less than Mrs Kirchner.
“I feel so happy because today we put an end to the mafia” of ruling party rule, said Felisa Sanchez, a Macri supporter waving an Argentine flag. “They claimed to be Robin Hood helping the poor with social welfare plans when the poor are really helped with jobs and education.”
But fulfilling his campaign promise to reform Argentina’s economy may prove difficult for Mr Macri.
When the business-friendly opposition candidate takes office December 10, he will inherit a country with around 30 per cent inflation, near-zero economic growth and entrenched government social spending that private economists warn is not sustainable. He also lacks majorities in either chamber of congress to pass his deep reforms.
Addressing thousands of supporters on Sunday, Mr Macri said his presidency would not be about “revenge” or “settling scores” but rather helping the country progress.
Mr Macri, 56, has pledged to lift unpopular controls on the purchase of US dollars and thus eliminate a booming black market for currency exchange. He has also vowed to jumpstart the economy by lifting many tariffs, lowering taxes and attracting foreign investment. Many of these moves could face resistance in a hostile congress and Mr Macri’s own background will feed into Argentina’s political polarisation after more than a decade of left-leaning government.
He hails from one of the country’s richest families and rose to prominence as president of the popular Boca Juniors soccer club. On the campaign trail, he sometimes talked about being kidnapped in the early 1990s, an experience he said helped him understand the needs of others and he credits with pushing him into politics.
Later, as mayor of Buenos Aires, he was known for a technocratic manner that stressed efficiency over style.
Mr Macri’s win signals a clear end to the era of Mrs Kirchner and her late husband. During their years in office, the power couple gained popularity by spending heavily on programmes for the poor, raising tariffs to protect local economies and passing several progressive laws, including the legalisation of gay marriage in 2010.
In recent weeks, Mr Macri increasingly talked about international relations, signalling some of his foreign policy priorities.
He said he would push to expel Venezuela from the South American trade bloc known as Mercosur because of the jailing of opposition leaders under Venezuela’s president Mr Maduro. That would be a huge change for a continent where many countries, including neighbours Chile, Brazil and Bolivia, have left-leaning democratic governments that have maintained close ties with Venezuela.
* Associated Press