Mauricio Macri sworn-in. Magalí Iglesias/Flickr. Some rights reserved.
Winds of change are blowing in Argentina. December 10 saw the government of President Mauricio Macri take the baton from Cristina Fernández de Kirchner — a left-leaning government replaced by a centre right one, twelve years of "Kirchnerismo" coming to an end, state-centred populism replaced by free-market utopianism. In typical Argentine fashion half the country welcomes these new airs while the other half regrets them. Time will only tell which half is wrong, not that they will manage to agree among themselves.
Although celebrated in peace the presidential handover was mired in political chicanery. The disagreements began around where to host the swearing-in ceremony — in the Casa Rosada or in the Senate — and they extended over the time at which the departing president's mandate should end. The latter, after the initiative of the then elected president, was decided by a court injunction that ruled that Fernández de Kirchner would officially end her mandate at 23:59, December 9. The dialogue broke down after this point and CFK, as she is known in political circles, was missing from the official proceedings on December 10, with the provisional president of the senate — Federico Pinedo — tasked with leading the inauguration ceremony.
