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Brazil's new acting leader mistakes a journalist for Argentina's Macri

Brazil's Vice President Michel Temer (C) receives a document from Senator Vicentinho Alves (L) notifying him of becoming the interim president after the Brazilian Senate voted to impeach President Dilma Rousseff, at his Jaburu Palace official residence in Brasilia, Brasil, May 12, 2016. Marcos Correa/Courtesy of Brazil's Vice Presidency/Handout via Reuters

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Brazil’s interim President Michel Temer, who took over on Thursday after Dilma Rousseff was suspended as the country’s leader, mistook a journalist interviewing him for a radio program for Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri.

“How are you President? ... I want to visit you soon,” Temer told a journalist for Argentine radio station El Mundo shortly before taking up the presidency. During the brief radio interview the journalist never clarified that he was not in fact Macri.

Temer, who was vice president under Rousseff, took over as acting president after the Senate voted to try her for breaking budget laws, meaning she is suspended for the duration of the trial.

Asked about the difficult situation in Brazil, Temer said he felt “very calm ... concerned about the situation, but we’re going to face it with a lot of enthusiasm.”

Reporting by Nicolas Misculin; Writing by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Frances Kerry

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