Argentina's Macri: "If I said what would happen, people would've voted to put me away in a nuthouse"

Speaking in Buenos Aires to a gathering of the Christian Association of Business Leaders - a business roundtable close to the far-right Catholic sect Opus Dei - Argentine President Mauricio Macri admitted that "if I said what would happen, people would've voted to put me away in a madhouse."

The phrase, part of a private speech in which the embattled Macri exhorted executives to "share in the effort" to reverse the sharp increase in unemployment since he took office seven months ago, recalled a similar quote often attributed to former President Carlos Menem: "if I told people what I would do, no one would have voted for me."

The latter quote, which was often used against the populist-turned-privatizer Menem, was actually said in his defense by one of his well-known supporters, tennis great Guillermo Vilas, in a 1989 interview. Menem himself never publicly said those words; Macri, however, did.

The president's admission comes on the heels of a deep recession triggered by his December 17 decision to devalue the peso by 40% in one day, as well as subsidy cuts and other austerity measures that have more than doubled public transport fares and raised utility rates by over 300%. The austerity plan - enacted in direct contradiction to reiterated campaign promises - has also triggered a wave of small-business bankruptcies, the loss of at least 150,000 jobs, and an inflation rate of 45%.

The Macri administration's claim that GDP grew 0.5% in the first quarter from the same time a year ago was likewise met with skepticism. "Considering the cuts implemented by the administration and their impact on prices," industrial economist Mariano Kestelboim observed, "it's striking that their estimates would show government consumption rising by 2.7% or private consumption by 1.1%."

Consumer confidence, meanwhile, has languished since April at 30% below the level registered when Macri was elected last November according to the market-friendly Di Tella University. A recent poll by Isonomía showed that 47% of Argentines feel they are worse off today than when Macri took office in December, with only 9% saying they are better off. A whopping 80% of respondents stated that Macri has failed to live up to their expectations.

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