25 Facts About Franco Macri

Francesco Raul Macri was an Italian-Argentine contractor, developer, industrialist and father of former Argentine President Mauricio Macri.

Franco Macri was born in Rome, to Giorgio Franco Macri and Lea Garbini.

Franco Macri's mother belonged to a prosperous local family, proprietors of an intercity bus service and supporters of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.

Franco Macri's father was born to a family of fallen nobility from the Calabria region.

The birth of the Italian Republic prompted Giorgio Franco Macri to enter politics, by which he co-founded a nationalist party, the Common Man's Front, ahead of the general elections in June 1946; following the party's poor showing he departed for Buenos Aires, settling in the western suburb of San Justo.

Franco Macri immigrated with two of his seven siblings- Antonio and Maria Pia.

Franco Macri later obtained housing in the Eva Peron Foundation's Ciudad Evita community, and was joined by his three children in January 1949.

Franco Macri found work in as a construction laborer; he was promoted quickly and held an administrative post within a year, later earning his secondary school diploma at the Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires and, in 1950, establishing a construction firm, Urbana.

Franco Macri married Alicia Blanco Villegas, the daughter of a prominent Tandil physician, in 1958, relocated to Mar del Plata, and had the first of their four children, Mauricio, in 1959.

Franco Macri started a home builder, Demaco, and purchased a tiny Buenos Aires apartment facing Vicente Lopez Plaza.

Franco Macri's marriage ended in separation in 1980, and in 1982 he married Cristina Cressier, with whom he had his sixth child, Florencia.

Franco Macri's finances were undermined from losses stemming from the Banco de Italia y Rio de la Plata, of which he was majority shareholder between 1975 and 1980.

The subsequent crisis, which resulted from the implosion of Economy Minister Jose Alfredo Martinez de Hoz's financial deregulation and strong peso policies, prompted Franco Macri to take advantage of an exchange rate guarantee enacted by the Central Bank in 1980 for large private borrowers facing sharply higher US dollar payments, a benefit granted to Sevel.

Franco Macri was elected in 1995 and caused controversy by earmarking a multi-million dollar renovation of the Bombonera stadium, and granting the contract to Impresit.

Franco Macri returned to the auto industry in 2007, when he obtained licensing to produce Chery automobiles, as well as their parts, which would be assembled in Uruguay.

Franco Macri published a reflection on his over half-century as an Argentine businessman, El futuro es posible, in 2004.

From 1949 when he arrived in Argentina Franco Macri kept the suitcase with which he came.

Shortly after the Panama Papers made the news, Mauricio appeared in a short television interview in which he said his father, Franco Macri, had founded the company through a "legal operation".

Franco Macri added that the company had been intended to carry out investment operations in Brazil but the business was never completed.

Mauricio appears himself in the directory, Franco Macri had reported it to the AFIP, and it was closed in 2008, just a year after Mauricio Macri became chief of government.

Martinez claimed Franco Macri could be guilty of perjury due to omissions made in his sworn statement.

Franco Macri died on March 2,2019, in his house in Barrio Parque.

Franco Macri received messages from other South American presidents, such as Brazilian Jair Bolsonaro, Bolivian Evo Morales, Paraguayan Mario Abdo Benitez, Peruvian Martin Vizcarra and the US ambassador Edward Prado.

Franco Macri was buried at the cemetery Jardin de Paz in Pilar.

The Franco Macri family arrived from San Martin de los Andes following a private funeral.