Mauricio Macri promised to end
poverty, fight drug trafficking and unite Argentines as he was sworn in on
Thursday as the new president of South America’s second-largest economy.
“A new era is coming: an era of
dialogue, respect and team work,” the former mayor of the city of Buenos Aires
said during the ceremony, which was attended by most South American presidents,
including the leaders of the neighbouring countries of Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and
Paraguay.
It was the first time since the
return of democracy in 1983 that a president had missed their successor’s
inauguration. Ms Fernández’s absence from the ceremony marked the end of a
messy transition of power in which she announced a flurry of extrabudgetary
spending decrees and last-minute hirings.
In her final days in power, Ms
Fernández placed further strain on an already bulging fiscal deficit by signing
decrees that would increase government spending by almost $14bn on salaries and
energy subsidies, $10bn on the state pension system and $3bn to cover costs at
the tax agency.
She also signed decrees devolving
central government funds to provincial governments and freezing debts owed by
provinces to the federal government, widening a budget deficit expected to
exceed 7 per cent of gross domestic product in 2015 — the biggest deficit in
more than 30 years.
In addition, Ms Fernández named
ambassadors to Australia, Cuba, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates, although
Mr Macri was quick to warn that he would revise all political designations.
Mr Macri’s election victory, which
saw the narrow defeat of the leftist Ms Fernández’s chosen successor in a
run-off vote last month, comes as other leftwing governments in the
resource-rich region suffer steep declines in popularity, notably in Brazil and
Venezuela, as the commodity boom comes to an end.
The former president of Boca
Juniors, one of the country’s best-loved football clubs, said Argentines were
“tired of useless confrontation”, referring to the fiery Ms Fernández’s
combative style that has polarised Argentine society and soured relations with
countries such as the UK and the US over her eight-year presidency.
To hearty applause on Thursday, Mr
Macri also pledged to be “implacable” against corruption among government
officials, and to provide his “complete support” for an independent judiciary,
addressing two of the strongest criticisms made against the outgoing
administration.
Mr Macri added that his government
would stop “lying and deceiving with false information” and prioritise
transparency, in a nod to his promise to overhaul the discredited state
statistics agency.
Beside his wife, Juliana Awada, Mr
Macri then drove from congress to the presidential palace, the Pink House,
accompanied by cavalry and waving at a multitude of cheering supporters
brandishing Argentina’s light blue-and-white national flag.
“Yes we can!” they yelled, as Mr
Macri thanked the crowd from the historic balcony of the presidential palace,
beside his disabled vice-president, Gabriela Michetti, who broke into song from
her wheelchair as Mr Macri began dancing in celebration.
Markets have high expectations for
Mr Macri, their preferred candidate in the election, and are now hoping for a
new era of pro-growth structural reforms that will clear the way for
much-needed investment to stimulate the flagging economy.
The economic challenges facing Mr
Macri are great, since he will inherit a widening fiscal deficit, an overvalued
currency and one of the highest rates of inflation in the world.
“The required macro adjustment poses
risks to Macri’s political capital and could erode governability if
expectations are not co-ordinated properly,” wrote Sebastian Rondeau, an
economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, in a note to clients on Thursday.
The only regional leader absent from
the proceedings was President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, after Mr Macri said
he would request that country’s suspension from the regional trade bloc,
Mercosur, although he toned down his position after Venezuela’s opposition won
back control of the legislature in elections last Sunday.
