BUENOS AIRES, (Reuters) – Argentina’s center-right President Mauricio Macri is taking down portraits and closing museums and other tributes to his left-leaning predecessors, getting rid of their cultural legacies as well as their populist economic policies.
Since taking over for Cristina Fernandez in December, Macri has removed sculptures of her late husband and former president Nestor Kirchner and of Juan Perón, the namesake of Argentina’s most influential political movement.
“Culture is crucial to building a political identity,” said sociologist Mercedes González Bracco of state-run science agency Conicet. “Macri’s party believes a makeover of the Kirchner style is needed.”
Fernandez continues to be a formidable political opponent for Macri, even as moderate Peronist factions abandon her. Though she isolated Argentina from capital markets and her nationalist polices spooked investors, about a third of Argentines remain loyal to her and say Macri will never be able to undo her legacy.
