María Eugenia Vidal

María Eugenia Vidal
Governor of Buenos Aires
In office
10 December 2015 – 5 October 2018
Preceded by Daniel Scioli
Deputy Mayor
of the City of Buenos Aires
In office
10 December 2011 – 10 December 2015
Preceded by Gabriela Michetti
Succeeded by Diego Santilli
Minister of Social Development
of the City of Buenos Aires
In office
28 May 2008 – 10 December 2011
Preceded by Esteban Bullrich
Succeeded by Carolina Stanley
Personal details
Born (1973-09-08) 8 September 1973
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Political party Republican Proposal
Spouse(s) Ramiro Tagliaferro (1998-2016)
Alma mater Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina

María Eugenia Vidal (born 8 September 1973)[1] is the current Governor of the province of Buenos Aires, being the first woman and the first non-Peronist since 1987 to be voted into office. She is affiliated with the Republican Proposal party. In 2008 she was appointed Minister of Social Development in the City of Buenos Aires by then Mayor Mauricio Macri, who also in 2011 appointed her to Deputy Mayor of the city of Buenos Aires.

Life and times

Vidal was born in Buenos Aires. She was raised in the Flores ward and enrolled in the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina, earning a degree in Political Science.[1][2] She met Ramiro Tagliaferro, a classmate at the university, and they married in 1998; the couple has a son and two daughters.[1]

She began her career in Grupo Sophia, a think tank founded by Horacio Rodríguez Larreta. She was named director of the group's social policy desk in 2000, as well as of Fundación Creer y Crecer, a think tank organized by Commitment to Change, a conservative political party led by mayoral candidate Mauricio Macri.[3] She is also a member of Washington D.C. based think tank, The Inter-American Dialogue.[4] Vidal was elected to the Buenos Aires City Legislature in 2003, and was appointed Chair of the Committee on Women and Youth.[2] She served in the Human Resources Department at PAMI (the national health insurance service for the elderly and disabled), and as adviser to ANSES (the social security administration), as well as the nation's Ministries of Social Development and Foreign Relations.[5][6]

Vidal was fielded in the Republican Proposal (PRO) party list as a candidate for a seat in the Argentine Chamber of Deputies for Buenos Aires Province in 2005, though unsuccessfully; she was later elected to the Buenos Aires City Legislature.[7] The election of PRO leader Mauricio Macri as Mayor of Buenos Aires in 2007 led to Vidal's nomination as the city's Minister of Social Development. She requested maternity leave from the post ahead of her scheduled December 10 swearing-in for the birth of her third child, and took office on May 27, 2008.[2]

Vidal's profile rose following the 2009 election of Deputy Mayor Gabriela Michetti to a seat in the Chamber of Deputies, and she became Mayor Macri's most visible female adviser.[1] Following Macri's decision to forfeit a PRO candidacy for the 2011 presidential election, and instead seek a second term as mayor, he nominated Vidal as his running mate.[5] The duo were reelected by a landslide on July 31, 2011, receiving over 64% of the vote with sociologist Daniel Filmus coming in 2nd place.[8]

Macri selected Vidal as the candidate of his party to run for governor of the Buenos Aires Province in the 2015 elections. The Radical Civic Union, allied with PRO in the coalition Cambiemos, proposed to replace her with Ángel Posse, but Macri kept Vidal. In another negotiation it was proposed that Sergio Massa resigned as candidate to the presidency and ran for governor in Macri's ticket, but Macri kept Vidal as candidate again. She will be the first female governor of the province, and it is the first time in 28 years that a non-Peronist candidate has won the election in the country's most populous province.[9]

Governor of Buenos Aires

Cabinet

Vidal announced her cabinet on December 4.[10] It is composed by politicians from the Republican Proposal, the Radical Civic Union and former members of Scioli's cabinet.

  • Federico Salvai, minister of government
  • Roberto Gigante, minister of coordination and control
  • Hernán Lacunza, minister of economy
  • Cristian Ritondo, minister of security
  • Edgardo Cenzón, minister of planification and infrastructure
  • Alejandro Finocchiaro, minister of education
  • Alberto Mahiques, minister of justice
  • Leonardo Sarquis, minister of agrarian affairs
  • Santiago López Medrano, minister of social development
  • Zulma Ortíz, minister of health
  • Jorge Elustondo, minister of production
  • Marcelo Villegas, minister of labor

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Spillman, Ezequiel. "Vidal, de alumna ejemplar a la chance de ser la vicejefa de Macri". Perfil.com. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 "Asumió María Eugenia Vidal en reemplazo de Esteban Bullrich". Buenos Aires Ciudad.
  3. ↑ "Quién es María Eugenia Vidal, la candidata a vice de Macri". Diario Z.
  4. ↑ "Inter-American Dialogue | María Eugenia Vidal". www.thedialogue.org. Retrieved 2017-04-13.
  5. 1 2 "Macri confirmó que María Eugenia Vidal será su compañera de fórmula". Clarín.
  6. ↑ "El jefe de Gobierno porteño eligió a María Eugenia Vidal como su vice". InformeReservado.net.
  7. ↑ "Propuesta Republicana". La Nación.
  8. ↑ "Macri re-elected BA Mayor after defeating Filmus by 28.5 points". Buenos Aires Herald.
  9. ↑ Ramiro Sagasti (October 26, 2015). "Vidal dio la gran sorpresa y le ganó a Aníbal Fernández en la provincia" [Vidal gave a great surprise and defeated Aníbal Fernández in the province] (in Spanish). La Nación. Retrieved October 26, 2015.
  10. ↑ "María Eugenia Vidal presentó a su gabinete: "Vamos a necesitar ayuda extraordinaria de la Nación para pagar sueldos"" [María Eugenia Vidal presented her cabinet: "we will need extraordinary help from the nation to pay wages"] (in Spanish). Retrieved December 3, 2015.
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