Mauricio Macri

Mauricio Macri
Official portrait, 2015
57th President of Argentina
In office
10 December 2015 – 10 December 2019
Vice PresidentGabriela Michetti
Preceded byCristina Fernández de Kirchner
Succeeded byAlberto Fernández
President pro tempore of the Union of South American Nations
In office
17 April 2017 – 17 April 2018
Preceded byNicolás Maduro
Succeeded byEvo Morales
5th Chief of Government of Buenos Aires
In office
10 December 2007 – 10 December 2015
DeputyGabriela Michetti
María Eugenia Vidal
Preceded byJorge Telerman
Succeeded byHoracio Rodríguez Larreta
National Deputy
In office
10 December 2005 – 18 July 2007
Succeeded byJulián Obiglio
ConstituencyCity of Buenos Aires
Personal details
Born (1959-02-08) 8 February 1959 (age 65)
Tandil, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Political partyRepublican Proposal (PRO) (2008–present)
Other political
affiliations		Commitment to Change (2003–2008)
Juntos por el Cambio (2015–present)
Spouses
Ivonne Bordeu
​
​
(m. 1981; div. 1991)​
Isabel Menditeguy
​
​
(m. 1994; div. 2005)​
​
(m. 2010)​
Children4
Parent
RelativesAlejandro Awada (brother-in-law)
Alma materPontifical Catholic University of Argentina
Columbia University
ProfessionCivil engineer
Signature
WebsiteOfficial website

Mauricio Macri (Spanish pronunciation: [mawˈɾisjo ˈmakɾi] ⓘ; born 8 February 1959[1]) is an Argentine businessman and politician who served as President of Argentina from 2015 to 2019.[2] He has been the leader of the Republican Proposal (PRO) party since its founding in 2005. He previously served as Chief of Government of Buenos Aires from 2007 to 2015, and was a member of the Chamber of Deputies representing Buenos Aires from 2005 to 2007. Ideologically, he identifies himself as a liberal and conservative on the Argentine centre-right.[3][4][5]

Born in Tandil, Macri trained as a civil engineer at the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina and attended Columbia University for business school. After embarking on a business career, he was kidnapped in 1991. The experience prompted him to enter politics, after being released by his captors. He served as president of football club Boca Juniors from 1994 to 2007, reestablishing its profitability which raised his public profile. In 2003 he launched the Commitment for Change, eventually developing it into the modern PRO party. Following an unsuccessful bid for Chief of Government of Buenos Aires in 2003, Macri was elected in 2007 and won re-election in 2011. Four years later he was elected president of Argentina in the 2015 general election – the first presidential runoff ballotage in Argentine history.

The presidency of Macri focused on reforming the national economy and improving diplomatic relations. He moved from a fixed exchange-rate system to a floating one, and removed taxes on exports and reduced subsidies on energy to reduce the fiscal deficit.[6][7][8] He aligned the country with gradualist neoliberalism and re-opened Argentina to international markets by lifting currency controls (which he reinstated shortly before his term ended), restructuring sovereign debt, and pressing free-market solutions. Domestically, he pursued moderate socially liberal policies, and liberalized the energy sector.

Macri strongly opposed the government of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela for human rights abuses and called for a restoration of democracy in the country.[9] He recognized Juan Guaidó, who was elected President of Venezuela by the National Assembly during the Venezuelan presidential crisis of 2019.[10] Macri improved the relations with the United States[11] and from Mercosur achieved a free trade agreement with the European Union[12] and closer ties with the Pacific Alliance.[13] During the first week in office, Macri annulled the Memorandum of understanding between Argentina and Iran, which would have established a joint investigation into the 1994 bombing with AMIA, a terrorist attack on a Jewish organization for which Argentina blamed Hezbollah and Iran.[14]

His legislative pursuits varied in efficacy and received mixed reception from Argentines and globally. His presidency has been praised for leaving a legacy of anti-corruption[15] and increasing Argentina's sovereign marketability,[16][17] but has been criticized for failing to materially reform the economy,[18][19] falling short of containing inflation,[20][21] and building up external debt.[22] Real wages declined[23] during his term in office and a large number of small and medium-sized companies went out of business.[24] In the 2019 general election, he became the first incumbent president in Argentina to lose reelection to a second term and was defeated by Alberto Fernandez.

  1. ^ "Biografía del Presidente Mauricio Macri". Casa Rosada (in European Spanish). Archived from the original on 20 July 2018. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  2. ^ "Galería de Presidentes". Archived from the original on 16 November 2020. Retrieved 11 November 2020.
  3. ^ Cué, Carlos E. (23 November 2015). "Macri gana en Argentina y pone fin al kirchnerismo tras 12 años". El País. Archived from the original on 28 June 2021. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
  4. ^ "Conservative Mauricio Macri wins Argentina presidency". BBC. 23 November 2015. Archived from the original on 28 June 2021. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
  5. ^ "Mauricio Macri wins Argentina presidential election". Financial Times. 23 November 2015. Archived from the original on 8 August 2021. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
  6. ^ Mander, Benedict (20 January 2016). "Macri raises hopes for Argentina's economic renewal". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 23 February 2017. Retrieved 22 February 2017.
  7. ^ Kerner, Daniel (October 2018). "Mauricio Macri's failure to plan has put Argentina in a tight spot". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 25 July 2020. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  8. ^ Mander, Benedict (18 October 2017). "Election tests Macri's promise to make Argentina 'normal' again". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 25 May 2021. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  9. ^ "Diputados de Cambiemos lanzaron una mesa de trabajo para seguir de cerca la crisis de Venezuela" [Deputies of Cambiemos started a workgroup to follow the crisis in Venezuela] (in Spanish). Infobae. 6 July 2017. Archived from the original on 2 October 2018. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
  10. ^ "Crisis en Venezuela: Macri reconoció a Juan Guaidó como presidente interino". La Nación. 23 January 2019. Archived from the original on 7 November 2020. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  11. ^ "Mauricio Macri se reunió con Barack Obama en la Casa Rosada". La Nación. Archived from the original on 8 November 2020. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  12. ^ "Histórico: firman el acuerdo comercial entre el Mercosur y la Unión Europea". La Nación. 28 June 2019. Archived from the original on 12 November 2020. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  13. ^ "Giro estratégico: Macri busca un acercamiento a la Alianza del Pacífico". La Nación. Archived from the original on 5 May 2021. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  14. ^ "Macri confirmó que se cae definitivamente el memorándum con Irán". La Nación. Archived from the original on 8 November 2020. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  15. ^ The Editorial Board (9 December 2019). "Argentina must preserve anti-corruption legacy". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 11 June 2020. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  16. ^ Wallencraft, Jeff (31 October 2019). "Mauricio Macri | Biography". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on 5 March 2019. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  17. ^ "Mauricio Macri's long odds". The Economist. ISSN 0013-0613. Archived from the original on 11 June 2020. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  18. ^ Zorzoli, Luciana (14 May 2019). "The Consequences of Mr Macri". Jacobin. Archived from the original on 28 June 2020. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  19. ^ Gedan, Benjamin N. (24 October 2019). "Mauricio Macri Was Bound for Disaster". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on 11 June 2020. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  20. ^ "Argentina 2019 inflation was 53.8%, highest in 28 years". Reuters. 15 January 2020. Retrieved 9 July 2022.
  21. ^ "Mauricio Macri freezes prices". The Economist. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 9 July 2022.
  22. ^ "Argentina: how IMF's biggest ever bailout crumbled under Macri". Financial Times. 2 September 2019. Retrieved 9 July 2022.
  23. ^ "El salario real es el más bajo de la última década y preocupa al Gobierno argentino". Bloomberg Línea (in Spanish). 13 April 2023. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
  24. ^ "Las Pymes en su peor momento: el número de cierres ya se acerca a 100 por día". infobae (in European Spanish). 4 October 2019. Retrieved 3 June 2023.