Mario Meoni

Mario Andrés Meoni (born 22 January 1965) is an Argentine politician, currently serving as the country's Minister of Transport since 10 December 2019, in the cabinet of President Alberto Fernández. From 2003 to 2015, Meoni was intendente (mayor) of Junín, a partido in the Buenos Aires Province.

Mario Meoni
Minister of Transport
Assumed office
10 December 2019
PresidentAlberto Fernández
Preceded byGuillermo Dietrich
Mayor of Junín
In office
10 December 2003 – 10 December 2015
Preceded byAbel Paulino Miguel
Succeeded byPablo Petracca
Buenos Aires Provincial Deputy
In office
10 December 1999 – 10 December 2003
ConstituencyFourth Electoral Section
Personal details
Born (1965-01-22) 22 January 1965
Ascensión, General Arenales, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina
Political partyUCR (1983–2007; 2010–2013)
Renewal Front (since 2013)
Other political
affiliations		Frente de Todos (since 2019)
Plural Consensus (2006–2008)
UDESO (2011–2012)
United for a New Alternative (2015–2017)

Early and personal life

Mario Andrés Meoni was born in 1965 in a road camp in Ascensión, a small town in General Arenales Partido in northern Buenos Aires Province.[1] His father was a roadway maintenance worker, and he is of Italian descent through his grandfather, who worked as a smith.[1][2] His family moved to Junín when he was 6 years old, and stayed there ever since.

He became interested in political activism after the return of democracy to Argentina in 1983, being drawn to the Radical Civic Union (UCR) inspired by President Raúl Alfonsín.[3] Meoni's political career began as private secretary to then-UCR senator Leopoldo Moreau.[4]

Since 1991 Meoni has been married to Laura Oliva, with whom he has twin sons.[5]

Political career

In 1987, Meoni was hired to work in the Plan Alimentario Nacional (PAN) of the Ministry of Social Action, during the presidency of Raúl Alfonsín. From 1991 to 1995 he was a local councillor in Junín, then going on to work as secretary of the UCR parliamentary bloc in the Argentine Chamber of Deputies from 1995 to 1999.[3]

In 1999 Meoni was elected to the Buenos Aires Province Chamber of Deputies in the UCR list, representing the fourth electoral district; he was the parliamentary bloc's vice president.[6]

Meoni (left) as Minister of Transport and Chief of Cabinet Santiago Cafiero during a joint press conference in February 2020.

Intendencia of Junín

In 2003, after several unsuccessful runs, Meoni won the UCR primary to the intendencia (mayoralty) of Junín.[4] He was elected mayor on 14 September 2003 with 38.34% of the vote.

Ahead of the 2007 general election, Meoni left the ranks of the UCR and joined the dissident "Radicales K" who supported the Kirchnerist government and the presidential candidacy of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner; thus he ran for re-election in the provincial list of the Plural Consensus coalition.[4][7]

During his second term as intendente, Meoni became a major collaborator of the OAS-based MuNET local development and transparency programme.[8]

Following the 2008 conflict between the government and farmers, in 2010 Meoni joined other radicales K who followed Vice President Julio Cobos in abandoning the Plural Consensus front and petitioning the UCR to allow them back into the party.[9] Meoni went on to call for a public referendum to validate Cobos's permanency in his post following his controversial vote against Resolution 125, an idea that never materialized.[10]

Meoni ran for a third term in 2011, this time forming part of Unión Social para el Desarrollo (UDESO), the electoral alliance that backed the presidential candidacy of Ricardo Alfonsín.[10] On that occasion, Meoni won with 41,27% against the candidate from the Front for Victory.[4] During his third term and starting in 2013, Meoni became close to Sergio Massa's Renewal Front.[11][4][2]

In 2015, Meoni ran for a fourth term, this time under the United for a New Alternative coalition of which the Renewal Front was part of.[12] Meoni lost against the PRO candidate, Pablo Petracca, by over 7 thousand votes.[13]

Banco Provincia and Ministry of Transport

On 14 January 2016 Meoni was appointed as one of the members of the directive board of the Bank of the Province of Buenos Aires (Banco Provincia) by the Provincial Senate of Buenos Aires, representing the Renewal Front and in replacement of Daniel Arroyo.[14][15] At the 2019 general election, Meoni ran again for the mayoralty of Junín against incumbent Petracca, but failed to regain the district and lost by a wide margin.[16]

On 6 December 2019, President-elect Alberto Fernández announced the composition of his incoming cabinet, in which Meoni was touted to be the next Minister of Transport, succeeding Guillermo Dietrich.[6][5] He took office alongside the rest of the cabinet on 10 December 2019.

References
  1. Mercado, Silvia (2 February 2020). "Mario Meoni: "Estamos desarrollando un subsidio al transporte enfocado en las personas y no en las empresas"". Infobae (in Spanish). Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  2. "Mario Meoni, colaborador de la OEA, se destaca por sus "políticas innovadoras"". El Litoral (in Spanish). 6 December 2019. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  3. "¿Quién es Mario Meoni?". Ámbito (in Spanish). 6 December 2019. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  4. "Quién es el intendente de Junín, Mario Meoni". infonews.com (in Spanish). 11 March 2013. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  5. Veneranda, Marcelo (6 December 2019). "Mario Meoni, el operador radical de Massa que deberá lidiar con Moyano y las empresas de transporte". La Nación (in Spanish). Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  6. "Mario Meoni, el ministro de Transporte". Página/12 (in Spanish). 7 December 2019. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  7. Capriata, Laura (24 November 2008). "Una joven generación que creció en la democracia y se afianza en la política". La Nación (in Spanish). Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  8. Higa, Satoshi (5 December 2019). "Mario Meoni, el exradical que ocupará la cartera de Transporte". cba24n.com.ar (in Spanish). Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  9. Hansen, Mariano (26 March 2010). "Cobistas bonaerenses vuelven a la UCR después de la fallida experiencia de la concertación" (in Spanish). Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  10. Rajcher, Silvia (11 March 2013). "Mario Meoni, de la Coordinadora a aliado eventual del macrismo". Télam (in Spanish). Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  11. "Este viernes Sergio Massa viene a Junín a un encuentro del Frente Renovador". El Regional Digital (in Spanish). 19 November 2014. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  12. "Massa entrena con un intendente de "sparring" para el debate con De la Sota". Clarín (in Spanish). 15 June 2015. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  13. "Petrecca es el nuevo intendente de Junín". diariodemocracia.com (in Spanish). 25 October 2015. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  14. "Meoni, uno de los cinco nuevos directores del Banco Provincia". diariodemocracia.com (in Spanish). 15 January 2016. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  15. "Puja por sillas en el Bapro". Ámbito (in Spanish). 16 January 2020. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  16. "Junín: derrotado, Meoni advirtió que no volverá a ser candidato a intendente". Letra P (in Spanish). 29 October 2019. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
Political offices
Preceded by
Guillermo Dietrich		 Minister of Transport
2019–present		 Succeeded by
Incumbent
Preceded by
Abel Paulino Miguel		 Intendente of Junín
2003–2015		 Succeeded by
Pablo Petracca
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