At a news conference on Monday, Mr. Macri emphasized how his administration would differ from that of Mrs. Kirchner on foreign policy. He announced an effort to get Venezuela — a close ally of Argentina under the Kirchners — suspended from the Mercosur regional trade bloc over claims of the infringement of civil liberties there.
And he made clear his desire to revoke an agreement struck under Mrs. Kirchner with Iran to jointly investigate the 1994 bombing here of a Jewish center, which killed 85 people. Some investigators have accused senior Iranian officials, including a former Iranian president, of planning and financing the attack, making the agreement to give Iran a direct role in the investigation a political lightning rod.
Mr. Macri has also announced plans to improve diplomatic ties with the United States, which became strained in recent years over Argentina’s international debts and Washington’s sway in the hemisphere. “There is little doubt that Argentina’s relations with the U.S. under a Macri administration will become friendlier,” said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a policy group in Washington. Mrs. Kirchner stepped down because of term limits, but her divisive governing style had enraged many voters, one of the factors that appeared to hurt her party’s candidate, Daniel Scioli, a former speedboat racer. After winning by a narrow margin, Mr. Macri vowed to “build bridges” with rivals in an effort to achieve a more conciliatory leadership approach. For one of his most pressing challenges, overhauling a sluggish economy, Mr. Macri said he would form a six-member economic cabinet to unwind currency controls and reduce export tariffs. Before entering politics with the formation of a center-right party in 2003, Mr. Macri cut his teeth in the cutthroat world of Argentine soccer. After his kidnapping, he remained for a few years in leadership roles in the construction and auto manufacturing business empire assembled by his Italian-born father, Franco Macri, before winning an election as the president of Boca Juniors, one of Argentina’s most popular soccer teams. The team, which allows fans who pay for membership to vote for a president every four years, was mired in …show more content…
Macri has sought to soften his image by explaining that he plans to maintain popular antipoverty programs introduced by the Kirchners since 2003.
Still, his ideological positioning clearly stands to the right of many of his rivals. He has expressed opposition, for instance, to legalizing abortion, while listing “The Fountainhead,” the 1943 novel about an individualistic young architect by Ayn Rand, the writer who espoused unbound capitalism, among his favorite reads.
“It is one of the best books I have read in my life,” Mr. Macri said.
In his personal life, Mr. Macri also mixes in exclusive circles, driving perceptions of him as out of touch with some voters.
“I don’t like Macri at all,” said Guadalupe Berlanga, 33, an English teacher here in Buenos Aires. “Privileges should not be for just a chosen few,” she said, saying she feared a wave of privatizations. “Macri voters don’t understand the reality because they come from money.”
In his personal life, Mr. Macri married his third wife, Juliana Awada, 41, a fashion designer of Lebanese and Syrian descent, in 2010; they have one young daughter. His first wife was Ivonne Bordeu, the daughter of a racecar driver with whom he had his three other children. His second wife was Isabel Menditeguy, a
And he made clear his desire to revoke an agreement struck under Mrs. Kirchner with Iran to jointly investigate the 1994 bombing here of a Jewish center, which killed 85 people. Some investigators have accused senior Iranian officials, including a former Iranian president, of planning and financing the attack, making the agreement to give Iran a direct role in the investigation a political lightning rod.
Mr. Macri has also announced plans to improve diplomatic ties with the United States, which became strained in recent years over Argentina’s international debts and Washington’s sway in the hemisphere. “There is little doubt that Argentina’s relations with the U.S. under a Macri administration will become friendlier,” said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a policy group in Washington. Mrs. Kirchner stepped down because of term limits, but her divisive governing style had enraged many voters, one of the factors that appeared to hurt her party’s candidate, Daniel Scioli, a former speedboat racer. After winning by a narrow margin, Mr. Macri vowed to “build bridges” with rivals in an effort to achieve a more conciliatory leadership approach. For one of his most pressing challenges, overhauling a sluggish economy, Mr. Macri said he would form a six-member economic cabinet to unwind currency controls and reduce export tariffs. Before entering politics with the formation of a center-right party in 2003, Mr. Macri cut his teeth in the cutthroat world of Argentine soccer. After his kidnapping, he remained for a few years in leadership roles in the construction and auto manufacturing business empire assembled by his Italian-born father, Franco Macri, before winning an election as the president of Boca Juniors, one of Argentina’s most popular soccer teams. The team, which allows fans who pay for membership to vote for a president every four years, was mired in …show more content…
Macri has sought to soften his image by explaining that he plans to maintain popular antipoverty programs introduced by the Kirchners since 2003.
Still, his ideological positioning clearly stands to the right of many of his rivals. He has expressed opposition, for instance, to legalizing abortion, while listing “The Fountainhead,” the 1943 novel about an individualistic young architect by Ayn Rand, the writer who espoused unbound capitalism, among his favorite reads.
“It is one of the best books I have read in my life,” Mr. Macri said.
In his personal life, Mr. Macri also mixes in exclusive circles, driving perceptions of him as out of touch with some voters.
“I don’t like Macri at all,” said Guadalupe Berlanga, 33, an English teacher here in Buenos Aires. “Privileges should not be for just a chosen few,” she said, saying she feared a wave of privatizations. “Macri voters don’t understand the reality because they come from money.”
In his personal life, Mr. Macri married his third wife, Juliana Awada, 41, a fashion designer of Lebanese and Syrian descent, in 2010; they have one young daughter. His first wife was Ivonne Bordeu, the daughter of a racecar driver with whom he had his three other children. His second wife was Isabel Menditeguy, a