ENLARGE
Mauricio Macri asked
for more time to address Argentina’s economic problems after defeating
the ruling-party candidate in the election Sunday.
Photo:
Enrique Marcarian/Reuters
At stake is Mr. Macri’s ability to overhaul the economy, but also Argentina’s collective capacity to overcome concerns that nobody can govern the country except for Peronists.
Argentina has had only three non-Peronist presidents elected over the past half century. Arturo Illía was overthrown in a coup in 1966. Raúl Alfonsín resigned amid hyperinflation in 1989 and deadly social protests led Fernando de la Rúa to flee the presidential palace by helicopter in 2001.
Mr. Macri narrowly won Sunday’s election amid veiled warnings from his ruling-party rival, Peronist Daniel Scioli, that a Macri presidency could end in failure and return Argentina to its the darkest days of its past.
“Don’t leave me alone,” Mr. Macri told Argentines early Monday at his first news conference as president-elect.
His calls for support come as many Argentines say they are tired of political conflict and want the government to solve problems such as rising poverty and crime.
“I don’t think they’ll do to Macri what they did to de la Rúa. People won’t allow it,” said Ana Abad, 45, a fashion designer who voted for Mr. Macri. “Peronists never let people from other parties govern, but that’s over.”
Mr. Macri’s future cabinet chief, Marcos Peña, says Argentina has changed and that a new generation of governors and younger politicians favors dialogue over political drama. He notes too that Mr. Macri and Mr. Scioli—as well as a third presidential candidate, Sergio Massa, a dissident Peronist—agree on the need to address pressing problems including drug trafficking and currency controls.
“We think there is a high level of agreement over the challenges that Argentina faces, and that is the base of our ability to build a governability agenda distinct from what we have had until now,” he added.
Not everyone is so certain. “I would not underestimate the degree of difficulties that the new government will face,” said former Brazilian Finance Minister Rubens Ricupero. “Because you know, the Peronists, when they lose, they are fierce in the opposition. They will exploit everything against the government.”
Non-Peronist politicians have traditionally had weaker ties to grass-roots movements and powerful labor groups such as the General Workers Confederation, which represents leading unions and carried out more than a dozen nationwide strikes during Mr. Alfonsín’s administration.
Peronists will also control both houses of Congress, making Mr. Macri the first president in recent history to take office without the support of a majority in the Lower House.
While Mr. Macri is inheriting adverse economic conditions, his non-Peronist predecessors faced outright insolvency, says José Luis Machinea, who was Mr. de la Rúa’s economy minister.
Mr. Alfonsín was also confronted by restlessness within the military and ballooning foreign debt. And Mr. de la Rúa inherited a dollarized economy that was so close to collapse that even the most experienced statesman might have been unable to forestall disaster.
“It was difficult to negotiate anything with Peronism,” said Mr. Machinea. “But the country is different now. History never repeats itself, and it leaves some lessons.”
Mr. Macri, who created his Republican Proposal Party from scratch just over a decade ago, will also have unprecedented territorial control. His sidekick as city mayor, María Eugenia Vidal, will now govern the Buenos Aires province, home to about a third of the country’s population. And it will be the first time since 1983 that a non-Peronist runs the province. His Let’s Change coalition will also govern this capital, the country’s wealthiest district.
While Mr. Macri is seen as business-friendly, he also favors public schools and state-funded health care and he has pledged to maintain popular social programs. Mr. Macri, who came to fame as the successful president of Argentina’s storied soccer club, Boca Juniors has also made inroads with some of the working-class voters traditionally represented by tied to Peronism.
Last month it was Mr. Macri, not departing Peronist President Cristina Kirchner, who inaugurated a statue of Gen. Juan Domingo Perón, the movement’s founder.
“He’s close to union leaders, and he could cement support if he cuts payroll taxes, a key demand from labor and one of his campaign pledges,” said Ricardo Romano, who was deputy chief of staff under Peronist President Carlos Menem in the late 1990s.
Meanwhile, Congressman Sergio Massa, who also broke ranks with Mrs. Kirchner and won about 20% of the vote in the first round of the presidential election, has said he act as “a guarantee of governability” for Mr. Macri.
That could help Mr. Macri pass key legislation in Congress, where Mr. Massa leads a bloc of around 30 legislators. José Manuel de la Sota, the Peronist governor of Córdoba Province who also ran for president, has said he too will help ensure that Mr. Macri can govern the country.
“If he’s flexible, he’ll be able to complete his term, but the departing administration is leaving a mine field behind,” said Mr. Romano.
—Alberto Messer contributed to this article.
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