Argentina's next president Scioli or Macri

Argentina's next president will be decided in a run-off election on November 22 between Buenos Aires Governor Daniel Scioli and Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri.

Their titles aren't the only similarities between the two candidates, who both hail from affluent families with Italian roots and are married to former models-turned-fashion entrepreneurs.

"The differences between them aren't that clear," said political analyst Mariel Fornoni.

Still, there are some salient distinctions -- especially when it comes to whether they will keep or dismantle the legacy of the past 12 years under President Cristina Kirchner and her late husband Nestor.

Here is a cheat-sheet on the differences -- and similarities -- between the men vying to become the next president of Latin America's third-largest economy.
- Scioli, the one-armed frontrunner -
Scioli, who served as vice president under Nestor Kirchner (2003-2007), is currently the governor of Buenos Aires province, which surrounds the capital city.

Known for his love of speed and sport, he lost his right arm in a power-boating accident in 1989.

But his campaign style is less high-octane.

A man of few words and limited charisma, he delivers his campaign ads in a flat monotone: "I've dreamed of this moment all my life," he intones.
He has repeatedly emphasized his commitment to continuity -- fending off left-wing critics in the Kirchner camp who criticize him as too far to the right.

Scioli, 58, grew up in a well-to-do family that owned a chain of appliance stores.

He was an eight-time world power-boating champion until a horrific accident set him on the path of politics.

He now wears a prosthetic arm and downplays his injury by doing things like knotting his tie one-handed on national TV.

He has proven himself a survivor with a slow but steady political rise in which he weathered sometimes brutal infighting among the "Peronists," the powerful political movement of former president Juan Domingo Peron.

He was elected to Congress in 1997 and became minister of sport and tourism in 2002, before Nestor tapped him for the vice presidency.

His partner of 14 years, former model and fashion entrepreneur Karina Rabolini, is also his ex-wife: they married in 1985, divorced in 1998, then got back together again.

He has a daughter from another relationship, with whom he renewed ties after initially refusing to recognize paternity.
- Macri, the business favorite -
Macri, the top choice of Argentines fed up with the Kirchners' hands-on economic policy, rose to fame as the president of Argentina's most popular football club, Boca Juniors, which won a string of titles under his reign.
The mayor of Buenos Aires since 2007, he spearheads a movement called "Let's Change" that wants to roll back 12 years of policies that Kirchner says help the working class but business leaders say are wrecking economic growth.

But Macri, the son of a business magnate, has had to tread carefully in a country with a loaded history of class conflict.

The graying 56-year-old has put on a broad smile beneath his piercing blue eyes as he crisscrosses the country's poorest provinces, hugging children and grandmothers and promising not to take away anyone's social benefits but rather give them the chance to work.

Twice divorced, he is now married to model and fashion entrepreneur Juliana Awada -- a friend of Scioli's wife -- with whom he has a three-year-old daughter.

Source:  AFP