President Mauricio Macri signals apparent thawing of bilateral relations over Falkland Islands as he bids to make Argentina more centrist in world affairs

Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri said he wants to start a “new kind of relationship” with Britain over the Falkland Islands as he tries to move his country towards a centrist position in world affairs.



The outreach over the disputed territories was one of several international fence-mending plans outlined by the leader of South America’s third-most populous country in his first interview with the foreign media since taking office last month.



The charm offensive – which has contrasted with domestic accusations of an authoritarian streak – came on the eve of his visit to the Davos world affairs forum, another first for an Argentinian president in more than a decade. In Switzerland, Macri will meet the UK prime minister, David Cameron, in an apparent thawing of bilateral relations that soured under his predecessor, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.



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In 1982, the two countries fought a two-month war over the islands, which are claimed by Argentina, where they are known as Las Malvinas. Under Fernández de Kirchner, they were a frequent source of tension.



Macri said he would continue to press Argentina’s claim to sovereignty, but he hoped the mood of dialogue could change.



“We’ll continue with the claim but I will try to start a new type of relationship,” he said. Pressed whether this would mean more trade, better transport links and other changes requested by the islanders, he avoided specifics. “I want to sit down and start talking about the subject and in the meantime find in which ways we can cooperate.”



The conciliatory tone was evident throughout the one-hour interview in the presidential office with the Guardian, Le Monde, El País and La Stampa. The meeting with the press was itself a sign of potential change. In eight years, Fernández de Kirchner gave very little access to the foreign media.

Macri said he planned to use “all means available to communicate” – already evident on his Facebook page, which became wildly popular after he posted a picture of his dog Balcarce sitting on the presidential chair.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Mauricio Macri’s dog Balcarce in the presidential chair at his office. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

The president, a former Buenos Aires mayor, looked a little uncomfortable, though this may have been more to do with his health. He was on painkillers after cracking a rib, reportedly while playing with his daughter the previous week. He also wore a scarf as he had a cold.



But the scion of one of Argentina’s elite families – who bears a striking resemblance to the actor Peter Capaldi – made it clear that he was out to woo international capital ahead of his trip to Davos with an open-for-business message.



He expressed satisfaction that the economy had adapted rapidly to a sharp currency devaluation, reiterated his desire to reach a deal with hold-out foreign creditors – better known during the Kirchner era as “vulture funds” and targeted a single-digit inflation rate “in the next few years”.

“We have to be a predictable and trustworthy country. We have to show investors that their rights will be respected, as well as we’ll demand that they obey Argentina’s laws,” he said. “Argentina wants to have a good relationship with the whole world.”



The victory of Macri’s pro-business campaign last November has been seen as part of a wider rightward shift in Latin American politics along with a crushing parliamentary defeat for Nicolás Maduro’s United Socialist party in Venezuela and the dire popularity of Brazil’s Workers party president, Dilma Rousseff. The new Argentinian leader, however, was reluctant to identify himself as part of a new movement.

“I’m focused on giving Argentinians better opportunities. If what we are doing here helps the region, all the better,” Macri said. “I don’t want to get involved in what’s going on in other countries. I try to build better relationships with them and work together with all the countries of the region. The only situation that I can’t be in favour of is the lack of respect to human rights in Venezuela.”



The international olive branch contrasts, however, with the tougher line Macri adopted on the domestic battles he is fighting to curb the lingering influence of his predecessor and her Peronist bloc.

Macri said a key legacy project of his predecessor’s – the $5.7bn Néstor Kirchner hydroelectric dam planned for construction in Patagonia with Chinese funding – was being reviewed and alternatives were being considered, though he stressed that he wanted to continue strategic relations with Beijing.

Despite aiming for “zero poverty”, the first month of the government has seen lay-offs of more than 10,000 state workers, many of them Peronists. Macri said more job losses were likely in what he described on several occasions as a “normalising” of the economy.



“The previous administration used the state to appoint its supporters instead of people that were capable of doing that work. We are moving forward to a state close to the people that can solve the people’s problems.”



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Mauricio Macri holds the symbolic leader’s staff at Casa Rosada presidential palace in Buenos Aires. Photograph: Marcos Brindicci/Reuters

Opponents say he is heavy-handed to the point of authoritarianism. During the interview, demonstrators outside the Casa Rosada protested the jailing of prominent indigenous leader, Milagros Sala.

Social movements say the political activist was arrested for taking part in a month-long rally against Macri and funding cuts for civic groups. Her jailing, they say, marks a worrying setback for democracy. Macri denies this, saying the decision was made by independent judges.



The new president has also been criticised for bypassing congress with the use of presidential decrees to appoint supreme court judges and nullify a media law that aimed to reduce the power of the giant Clarín media conglomerate, which had supported Macri in the election. A former Clarín journalist has been appointed co-director of the Telam state news agency.

Macri has used five decrees in his first month compared with 76 by Fernández de Kirchner in her eight years, 270 by her husband Néstor in his four years, and 545 by Carlos Menem in his 10 years. The new president was unapologetic.



“I’m using a constitutional tool, I’m not inventing anything. It can’t be authoritarian if it’s constitutional. I’m just starting, there have only been a few decrees. Come back when I’ve used over a hundred,” he said.



Far from interfering in other branches of government, Macri says he has made the courts more transparent and independent.



He points to his decision to declassify documents related to the mysterious death of prosecutor Alberto Nisman a year ago. Nisman was found shot in his bathroom a day before he was due to testify in Congress against Fernández de Kirchner, but prosecutors have so far failed to ascertain whether it was suicide or murder.



Macri, who recently met Nisman’s family, said declassification and the granting of permission for judges to summon state security officials should help to resolve the case. “We made all these changes looking forward to a different result. If there was some political interference, there’s not any more. We want to solve it,” he said.



He has other goals. Formerly a successful president of Boca Juniors, he wants to reform Argentina’s scandal-plagued football administration and mount a bid to co-host the 2030 World Cup with Uruguay. But more than this or the Falklands, the biggest challenge to what he calls “normalising” Argentina is likely to come from the fundamentally Peronist character of the nation.



Outside the country’s various military dictators, no non-Peronist president has finished a term of office in more than 50 years as a result of union opposition and street protests.

Asked whether he would like to be remembered as the president who bucks that historic trend, Macri replied: “Wait and see.”

Christine Legrand (Le Monde), Filippo Fiorini (La Stampa) and Carlos Cue (El País) contributed to this report

