mauricio macri

Macri

Buenos Aires just voted for a new governor and the winner is Mauricio Macri, who is currently president of the city's famous Boca football club and represents Buenos Aires in the Lower House of the Argentine Congress. Yesterday was a run-off election between Macri (who won with 60%) and Daniel Filmus, who currently serves as Secretary of Education, Science and Technology, and had the backing of President Kirchner. Voting here is mandatory for every citizen. Some have said that because of mandatory voting, lots of people go to the polls without knowing anything of the candidates, and just pick whatever name they've heard of, so this system tilts the results towards any celebrity such as Macri. I don't know a lot of facts about the candidates but I'm slowly gathering facts from reading newspaper articles in spanish, and meanwhile I've heard plenty of opinions and hearsay, which I will repeat here in lieu of substantiated facts. Everyone I've talked to says that Macri is a bad choice for a number of reasons. He's the son of a wealthy, powerful businessman, Franco Macri, and most of his business experience comes from working for his rich daddy's companies. His popularity and name recognition are generally attributed to his association with the popular Boca team, not his position as a public servant or any past interest in public welfare. During his current term of public service, he has allegedly missed 280 out of 320 voting sessions. So, vamos a ver. We will wait and see how this turns out, and meanwhile I will try to learn more facts!