Mauricio Macri wins Argentina Presidential run-off

What does it matter that Mauricio Macri won a runoff Sunday evening to become Argentina’s next president? Macri has promised to strengthen institutions, introduce more pro-business policies, cut deals with foreign creditors and realign Argentina’s foreign policy away from Venezuela and Iran and closer to the US.

He said his presidency would not be about “revenge” or “settling scores”, but rather helping the country progress.

RIGHT-WING candidate Mauricio Macri has won the run-off in Argentina’s presidential election by a narrow margin, ending 12 years of “Kirchnerismo”.

Macri, 56, has pledged to lift unpopular controls on the purchase of USA dollars and thus eliminate a booming black market for currency exchange. “We have to build an Argentina with zero poverty, we have to confront the drug smuggling”, he said.

Official results gave Macri 51.8 percent of the votes and 48.2 percent for Scioli, with 95 percent of ballots counted.

Argentine media also named the person Macri wants to head Argentina’s Central Bank: Federico Sturzenegger, a lawmaker, former banker and ex-head of the nationalized oil company YPF (Sao Paolo: R2:YPFL3S.SA – news), who also studied in the United States.

Macri vowed to “govern for absolutely everyone” and “build bridges” with rivals, as analysts warned he may struggle to get his liberal economic reforms past hostile lawmakers. He also said he plans to keep some big nationalized companies, like Aerolineas Argentinas, under government control, but he also promised to steer a centrist economic course and work with, instead of against, the private sector.

“There’s been so much corruption and the economy has been poorly managed”, said Romina Casela, 41, who swung behind Macri for the second round.

Kirchner has had sharp words for them at times, including with Britain in the territorial dispute over the Falkland Islands, known in Spanish as Las Malvinas.

Macri’s supporters swarmed around the iconic Obelisk in the heart of Buenos Aires’s theater district as passing cars blared their horns in celebration.

Scioli admitted defeat to Macri a few hours after polls closed.

“Macri understands what the country needs to do to regain the confidence of worldwide investors and get the economy back on its feet”, said Andrew Stanners, investment manager at Aberdeen Asset Management. “I am here because you have decided”, he said from his campaign headquarters. He also will look to revive relationships with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other multinational financial entities. But the economy now seems to be flagging again. Fernandez had invited him to the Casa Rosada presidential palace to talk on the transition, which must be completed by December 10.