Raúl López (Napoleon's World)

Raúl López Modelo (born December 8, 1949) is the outgoing President of Argentina, who has served since May 1, 2004 and whose term will expire officially at 11:59 PM on April 30, 2012 to make way for his successor, President-elect Daniel Scioli. López is a member of the Liberal Democratic Party and is, since the 1988 return to democracy, the only Argentinean President to be come from a party on the right.

As President, López's economic platform was focused on diversifying the Argentinean economy and opening up labor markets, a program he referred to as "New Tomorrow." He decreased the size of the Argentinean army while upgrading the navy and air force, and extended government aid to farmers during a 2006 drought. Due to his popularity, he won a surprising one-off election in 2008 by 54.4% in the first round, considered a landslide by Argentinean standards. López denationalized many major companies and his policies were generally described as neoliberal, in particular by opponents within labor unions.

Towards the end of his first term, Argentina surpassed Colombia as South America's fastest-growing economy for the first time since the 1940's, and Argentina surpassed both Brazil and Chile to become Latin America's second-largest economy. López signed seven free trade agreements and is an advocate for a new economic union such as the defunct League of South American Nations, although he opposes a common currency as has been suggested by Chilean and Peruvian politicians.