Mauricio Macri, the new right-leaning leader of Argentina, has just been sworn into office.

Macri's presidency officially puts an end to a dozen years of what has been dubbed “Kirchnerism,” a time typified by widespread social programs and large government spending.

The swearing in ceremony was boycotted by President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

As previously reported, Fernandez planned to boycott the inauguration after Macri attempted to hasten her exit from the Argentina’s presidential Pink House. Macri's party sought a court injunction which would affirm that her term would end at midnight on Wednesday. Fernandez was angered and insulted by the move, but joked about it with the media.

"I can't speak long because at midnight I turn into a pumpkin," she said to reporters last night.

The business-friendly Macri ran a campaign on promises to move his nation’s economy toward a more capitalistic model and improve relations with the United States.

Addressing Congress, Macri said he wished to communicate with all Argentines. "Politics for me is not a competition to see who's got the bigger ego,” said the 56-year-old mayor of Buenos Aires, “It's working together for the good of the people."

According to the BBC, Macri said, "A new time is coming, a time of dialogue, a time of teamwork."

Macri sees job creation as vital to invigorating the Argentine economy. The Guardian reports Macri said, “Multiplying job opportunities is the only way to achieve prosperity where, today, there is an unacceptable level of poverty.”

Fernandez has not been supportive of Macri. Last week, as she gave a goodbye speech to her supporters, she went so far as to urge her followers to take to the streets in protest in they felt betrayed by Macri’s brand of center-to-right governing.

Fernandez’s decision not to attend the swearing in ceremony is a historic slight, as it was the first instance that an Argentine president did not attend the presidential swearing in ceremony of a successor since the end of the military dictatorship back in 1983.