Macri Takes Vacation as Argentine Workers Get No Break

As workers in Argentina are hit with rising rates of unemployment and tough austerity measures, conservative Argentine President Mauricio Macri has taken 41 days of vacation since coming to power in Dec. 2015.

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After he won the presidential election on Nov. 22, 2015, Marci immediately took a number of days off. Once he assumed office in Dec. 2015, he then took time off to travel to Villa La Angostura, in Patagonia from Dec. 25 until Jan. 4.

This holiday season he will again begin his vacation on Dec. 25 and will return on Jan. 8, 2017. So far in his one-year presidency, he has already taken off more than a month off.

When outgoing U.S. president Barack Obama visited Argentina in May, Macri took four days off at a lodge in Cumelen, near San Carlos de Bariloche, Patagonia and also took three days off there in August.

In October, Macri celebrated his daughter's birthday with a long weekend break in Tandil, south of Buenos Aires. In December, Macri then spent four days in Argentina’s second largest city, Cordoba.

As Macri freely took time off, Argentina has been reeling under his austerity measures and widespread jobs losses. Since coming to power the unemployment rate has risen by 60 percent to an official total of 9.3 percent.

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In just the first six months of Marci's coming to power, Argentina’s Center for Political Economy showed that a total of 179,285 workers lost their jobs, with 40 percent of those lost in the public sector.

Workers and social movements have staged a series of large protests against layoffs and poor labor conditions. Argentina’s inflation has been rising, and Macri himself has acknowledged that one in three Argentines live below the poverty line.