Former football chief wins Argentina presidential elections
Mauricio Macri (left) celebrates next to his wife Ms Juliana Awada and his daughter Antonia at the Cambiemos party headquarters in Buenos Aires on November 22, 2015 after winning the presidential run-off election in Argentina. PHOTO | JUAN MABROMATA | AFP
What you need to know:
In the runoff vote, Macri was the favourite candidate of big businesses and foreign investors alienated by Kirchner’s abrasive approach and protectionist policies.
A social conservative, he opposed the legalisation of gay marriages in Argentina in 2010, firmly opposes abortion and once criticised what he called “uncontrolled immigration” in the country under outgoing Kirchner.
The twice-divorced father of four rose to fame as the president of Argentina’s most popular football club, Boca Juniors.
BUENOS AIRES, Monday
His rivals dismissed him as a spoilt elitist, but Mauricio Macri gathered allies from diverse political forces to persuade Argentines to vote him as their president on Sunday.
With a dashing smile under his piercing blue eyes, the graying 56-year-old channelled discontent among Argentines fed up with the hands-on economic policy of outgoing President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.
In the runoff vote, Macri was the favourite candidate of big businesses and foreign investors alienated by Kirchner’s abrasive approach and protectionist policies.
He has proposed easing restrictions on imports and dollar transactions and liberalising the economy after 12 years of rule by the Peronist movement that has dominated Argentine politics for decades.
SOCIAL CONSERVATIVE
A social conservative, he opposed the legalisation of gay marriages in Argentina in 2010, firmly opposes abortion and once criticised what he called “uncontrolled immigration” in the country under outgoing Kirchner.
The twice-divorced father of four rose to fame as the president of Argentina’s most popular football club, Boca Juniors.
“I wanted to be Boca’s number nine striker,” he once said.
Instead, he led in the boardroom during the team’s most successful period, seeing it win 17 titles.
That powerful position catapulted him into politics. He founded his Republican Proposal alliance, known as PRO, in 2005.
LETS CHANGE MOVEMENT
The mayor of Buenos Aires since 2007, Macri led a movement called “Let’s Change” aiming to roll back policies that Kirchner says help the working class but business leaders say wrecked economic growth.
Macri was born in Tandil, a city in the east, and previously managed his father’s firm.
He is married to model and fashion entrepreneur Juliana Awada — a friend of rival Daniel Scioli’s wife — with whom he has a three-year-old daughter. He has two other children from a previous marriage.
Son of a rich businessman and educated at the elite Cardinal Newman College in Buenos Aires, Macri had to tread carefully in a country with a loaded history of class conflict.
He drew leaders of various political stripes to his cause.
In last month’s first-round vote, he surprised pollsters by finishing close behind Kirchner’s ally Scioli, and seized the momentum as the vote headed to a runoff.
