Buenos Aires’ Avenida 9 de Julio, one of the widest avenues in the world



FRONT PAGE
SiteSearch
About us
Directories


World Mayor
Directory of mayors

Other mayors from Latin America
| Bogota | Buenos Aires | Caracas | Chacao | Curitiba | Florencio Varela |
Guatemala City | Guayaquil | Guaymas | Havana | Hermosillo | Mexico City | Montevideo | Porto Alegre | Quito | Rio de Janeiro | Sao Paulo | Villa Nueva |

Argentinian local government
South American direct democracy


City Mayors reports news from towns and cities around the world. Worldwide | Elections | North America | Latin America | Europe | Asia | Africa | Events |


Mayors from The Americas, Europe. Asia, Australia and Africa are competing for the annual World Mayor Award. More


City Mayors ranks the world’s largest as well as richest cities and urban areas. It also ranks the cities in individual countries, and provides a list of the capital cities of some 200 sovereign countries. More


City Mayors reports political events, analyses the issues and depicts the main players. More


City Mayors describes and explains the structures and workings of local government in Europe, The Americas, Asia, Australia and Africa. More


City Mayors profiles city leaders from around the world and questions them about their achievements, policies and aims. More


City Mayors deals with economic and investment issues affecting towns and cities. More


City Mayors reports on how business developments impact on cities and examines cooperation between cities and the private sector. More


City Mayors describes and explains financial issues affecting local government. More


City Mayors lists and features urban events, conferences and conventions aimed at urban decision makers and those with an interst in cities worldwide. More


City Mayors reports urban environmental developments and examines the challenges faced by cities worldwide. More


City Mayors reports on and discusses urban development issues in developed and developing countries. More


City Mayors reports on developments in urban society and behaviour and reviews relevant research. More


City Mayors deals with urban transport issues in developed and developing countries and features the world’s greatest metro systems. More


City Mayors examines education issues and policies affecting children and adults in urban areas. More


City Mayors investigates health issues affecting urban areas with an emphasis on health in cities in developing countries. More


City Mayors examines the importance of urban tourism to city economies. More


City Mayors examines the contributions history and culture make to urban society and environment. More


City Mayors describes the history, architecture and politics of the greatest city halls in the world. More


City Mayors invites readers to write short stories about people in cities around the world. More


City Mayors questions those who govern the world’s cities and talks to men and women who contribute to urban society and environment. More


City Mayors profiles national and international organisations representing cities as well as those dealing with urban issues. More


City Mayors reports on major national and international sporting events and their impact on cities. More


City Mayors lists cities and city organisations, profiles individual mayors and provides information on hundreds of urban events. More

Mauricio Macri, Mayor of Buenos Aires:
Local politician with national ambitions

By Andrew Stevens, Deputy Editor

26 July 2007: The mayor of the Argentinean federal capital Buenos Aires represents both a sea change in the nation’s recent turbulent political history and a populist touch to the problems which have blighted the city in spite of continuous economic growth and stability. The conservative businessman first ran for mayor in 2003 following his stint as president of one of the country’s best-known football teams, eventually securing election to Congress in 2005 and as mayor in July 2007.

Join the debate on Mayor Macri

Born in the city of Tandil, situated in the exterior of Buenos Aires province, in 1961, Macri hails from one of Argentina’s wealthiest families. Having attended the Catholic University of Argentina, where he received a degree in civil engineering, followed by Columbia Business School and Wharton Business School in the US, Macri obtained a number of senior management positions within his father’s companies, before attaining widespread recognition as president of the Boca Juniors football team in 1995.

In 2003 Macri founded the right-leaning Commitment to Change party as a vehicle for his own political ambitions, contesting the Buenos Aires mayoral election that year. In that election, Macri won the first round, taking 47% of the vote, but lost in the run-off to incumbent mayor Anibal Barra of the centre-left Front for a Country in Solidarity.

Following the economic crises of 2001 and 2002, 2003 proved a landmark year in Argentinean politics, with the victory by default of Peronist Néstor Kirchner in the discredited presidential election of that year following frontrunner Carlos Menem’s withdrawal from the race. Kirchner had backed Peronist ally Barra for the mayoralty in the capital but the fall-out from the 194 deaths in the República Cromagnon nightclub fire of December 2004 led to the mayor’s impeachment following revelations concerning weak city fire inspections of the premises, Barra having initially blamed the federal authorities for the blaze.

Barra was succeeded as mayor by his vice mayor, Jorge Telerman. During this period, Commitment to Change, in alliance with other parties of the Argentinean right as ‘Republican Proposal’, won several seats in the federal Congress, with Macri entering the lower chamber in 2005. Macri’s opponents charge that he has the worst attendance record in the Congress, which he does not deny but counters that the legislature “lacks debate”.

In the 2007 mayoral election, Macri again took the majority of votes in the first round with 46% of the vote but faced a run-off against the government-backed candidate, education minister and socialist academic Daniel Filmus. Three weeks later however, Macri secured election with 60% of the vote and will take office as mayor later this year. Macri’s victory was perceived as a blow for the re-election ambitions of President Kirchner, who has since withdrawn from the race and will instead focus on the foundation of a new party to retain office for the Peronist wing, possibly under his wife Senator Cristina Kirchner’s candidacy. This therefore places Macri in something of a kingmaker role concerning the selection of presidential challenger of the right, with the October election falling before his taking office as mayor in December 2007.



Comment & Debate
City Mayors is inviting its readers to engage in a debate on the issues raised in the article on this page. Please post your comments below. Your comments should deal with the topics of this article and must be legal and ethical. You may also reply to and/or challenge comments of other readers. While we endeavour to publish all relevant comments, we reserve the right to edit them and to reject unsuitable contributions.

Please add your comment
Title of article
Your comment relates to the article on this page:


Your name
Please provide your name as you wish it to be published. It can be your full name, first name, initials or a nickname. (Impersonating someone else is unacceptable.)


Your city and country
Please provide the city and country you live in. (Example: Paris, France)


Your email address
Please provide your email address. (Your email address will NOT be published)


Your comment
If possible, please provide your comment in English, using upper and lower cases. Please mention if you refer to a comment of another reader.










Mauricio Macri, elected Mayor of Buenos Aires in July 2007


Also by Andrew Stevens
Sao Paulo Mayor confronts the advertising industry
Voters in the city of Sao Paulo could be forgiven for wondering how they ended up with Gilberto Kassab as their mayor, as they certainly didn’t elect him to the job. Having become mayor following Jose Serra’s resignation upon elevation to Sao Paulo state governorship, Kassab represents one of Brazil’s few parties of the right.

Though a native Paulistano, born in the city’s wealthy Pinheiros district in 1960, Kassab is of Syrian descent. Kassab is the second mayor to hail from the city’s small Arab community, the most notorious being Paulo Maluf. One of the youngest in a family of seven, the son of a doctor, he obtained two degrees from the University of Sao Paulo, first as a civil engineer and then in economics, graduating in 1986. As such, Kassab’s political education came during the final years of Brazil’s military regime, when its grip on government was loosening and political parties began to flourish. This contrasts with his predecessors Jose Serra and Marta Suplicy, who both came of age under the dictatorship and were educated in exile. More