Mauricio Macri, mayor of Argentina's capital city of Buenos Aires, was elected Sunday to become the country's next president.
The candidate of the conservative Cambiemos party won a runoff with 51 percent of the votes and will be sworn in on Dec. 10 for a four-year term. Born on Feb. 8, 1959, in the city of Tandil, into one of the country's richest families as the son of business magnate Franco Macri, Mauricio Macri went on to get a degree in civil engineering from the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina.
As mayor of the capital city since 2007, he has often clashed with the federal government headed by President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. During the presidential campaign, Macri stressed his proven ability of governance and promised to "take the success we have achieved in Buenos Aires to the rest of the country." < A fan of the Boca Juniors football club, he was its president from 1995 to 2008, overseeing one of the club's most successful spells as it won domestic and international titles.
He became a national deputy in 2005 for the Republican Proposal party, before taking over as the leader of the Cambiemos alliance. He is married to businesswoman Juliana Awada, with whom he has a daughter, Antonia. He also has three sons from an earlier marriage. In 1991, he was kidnapped by police officers in a spectacular affair that lasted 12 days.
He was released after the kidnappers received an alleged ransom of 2.5 million U.S. dollars. Macri is depicted by critics as "a neoliberal, right-wing entrepreneur" who cares little for the poor. However, during his campaign, he laid out his priorities as eradicating poverty, fighting drug trafficking and uniting all Argentineans.
Latest comments