Cristina Fernández de Kirchner: Difference between revisions
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On [[1 July]] [[2007]], Chief of Cabinet [[Alberto Fernández]] (who often acts as a spokesperson for the presidency) told the press that Fernández de Kirchner would indeed be the presidential candidate, and that her campaign would be officially launched on [[19 July]]. <ref name="candidate"/> <ref>BBC News, 1 July 2007. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6259452.stm Argentine first lady bids to rule].</ref>Four opinion polls published by Clarin on Sunday July 1 showed Kirchner's wife likely to win in a first round of balloting, with around 46 percent support and a more than 30 percentage point lead over two other leading presidential contenders<ref>{http://en.epochtimes.com/news/7-7-2/57175.html}</ref> |
On [[1 July]] [[2007]], Chief of Cabinet [[Alberto Fernández]] (who often acts as a spokesperson for the presidency) told the press that Fernández de Kirchner would indeed be the presidential candidate, and that her campaign would be officially launched on [[19 July]]. <ref name="candidate"/> <ref>BBC News, 1 July 2007. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6259452.stm Argentine first lady bids to rule].</ref>Four opinion polls published by Clarin on Sunday July 1 showed Kirchner's wife likely to win in a first round of balloting, with around 46 percent support and a more than 30 percentage point lead over two other leading presidential contenders<ref>{http://en.epochtimes.com/news/7-7-2/57175.html}</ref> |
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In July 2007 she started a presidential tour through Spain which resulted however in a worse image projection of Cristina, after demonstrating poor knowledge of the Latin economy (when she indicated that the biggest telephone company in Spain and Latin America, Telefonica, bought British Telecom, instead of O2) or by frivolising about the social and economical situation for companies to invest in Argentina. Her image reportedly went down during the tour by a 3%. |
In July 2007 she started a presidential tour through Spain which resulted however in a worse image projection of Cristina, after demonstrating poor knowledge of the Latin economy (when she indicated that the biggest telephone company in Spain and Latin America, Telefonica, bought British Telecom, instead of O2) or by frivolising about the social and economical situation for companies to invest in Argentina.{{fact}} Her image reportedly went down during the tour by a 3%. |
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==Statements== |
==Statements== |
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Revision as of 20:38, 9 August 2007
Foto: Presidencia de la Nación
Cristina Elisabeth Fernández (born February 19 1953) is an Argentine politician, senator for Buenos Aires Province and the First Lady of Argentina. She is also known as Cristina Kirchner and Señora K ("Mrs. K"), and informally as "la pinguina." In July of 2007 she was officially confirmed as the ruling Front for Victory party's candidate for the presidency of Argentina in the general election scheduled for October 28 2007. [1] If elected, Fernández de Kirchner would become Argentina's second woman president, but the first to be elected.
Education
Fernández studied and graduated as a lawyer at the School of Legal and Social Sciences of the University of La Plata in the 1970s. She married a fellow university student, Néstor Kirchner, [2] the current president of Argentina, politically active in her same party, on 9 March 1975. Together they moved to the province of Santa Cruz, where they engaged in the private practice of their profession. They have two children, named Máximo and Florencia.
Political career
Fernández started her political career in the Tendencia Revolucionaria faction of the Justicialist Party in the 1970s, and was elected provincial representative of Santa Cruz in 1989 and subsequently re-elected in 1993.
In 1995 she was elected to represent Santa Cruz in the Senate and in 1997 in the Chamber of Deputies. In 2001 she won again a seat in the Senate.
Fernández provided the main backbone to her husband's successful campaign for the presidency of Argentina in 2003, against two other Justicialist candidates and several other competitors. As First Lady, she has become an itinerant ambassador for her husband's government. Her highly combative speech style polarises Argentine politics (recalling the style of Eva Perón) but seems to be appreciated by a large part of society, mainly in the lower classes.
She was the main candidate for Senator of the Front for Victory faction of her party in the province of Buenos Aires, for the 23 October 2005 elections, in a heated campaign directed mainly against Hilda González de Duhalde, the wife of former interim president Eduardo Duhalde. Her list won the elections by a 25% margin over González.
Presidential candidate
With the October 2007 elections approaching, Fernández de Kirchner began to receive repeated indirect support from members of her party as a prospective presidential candidate. [3] Some political analysts hypothesized that Néstor Kirchner could forego reelection and support his wife, who could do the same for him after her term, thus solving the lame duck problem.[4] Surveys showed that the First Lady would win the presidential election by a wide margin over all other representative candidates (except her husband himself). [5] [6] On 1 July 2007, Chief of Cabinet Alberto Fernández (who often acts as a spokesperson for the presidency) told the press that Fernández de Kirchner would indeed be the presidential candidate, and that her campaign would be officially launched on 19 July. [1] [7]Four opinion polls published by Clarin on Sunday July 1 showed Kirchner's wife likely to win in a first round of balloting, with around 46 percent support and a more than 30 percentage point lead over two other leading presidential contenders[8]
In July 2007 she started a presidential tour through Spain which resulted however in a worse image projection of Cristina, after demonstrating poor knowledge of the Latin economy (when she indicated that the biggest telephone company in Spain and Latin America, Telefonica, bought British Telecom, instead of O2) or by frivolising about the social and economical situation for companies to invest in Argentina.[citation needed] Her image reportedly went down during the tour by a 3%.
Statements
- “You can be sure that all and each one of us who have institutional responsibilities will raise not only our voice but will take concrete action against any sign of anti-Semitism. We are not willing to give away what has been a historic tradition in Latin America”.[9]
- “The present time Latin America is going through, with its impressive natural and human resources, devoid of racial and religious conflicts, is a unique moment, and I believe that Argentina and Argentines are at the doorstep of an unprecedented opportunity". [10]
- “I feel honored to belong to a generation that was a propitious victim of state terrorism”. [11]
- “Memory and freedom must be everybody’s daily exercise in order to prevent a new holocaust and a renewed violation of human rights”. [12]
- “Where do you imagine Evita to stand: asking not to go back to the past, or next to the mothers and grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo?". [13]
- “Peronism is so much like Argentines. We Peronists, just like all Argentines, are capable of spawning the most generous actions and the most sublime individuals, as well as the most despicable actions. That’s how contradictory we are. When kidnapping was rife in this country and people were made to disappear and thrown into the river, the defenders of press freedom were absent without giving notice”. [14]
- “Our society requires that women be more numerous in decision-making positions and in entrepreneurial areas. We always have to pass a twofold test: first, to prove that, though women, we are no idiots, and second, the test anybody has to pass”. [15]
- “The utopias of a better world and a more just society have to do with words, with the generation of dreams, with imagination, with a very important identity that overcomes languages and is the identity of the human condition, to be able to recognize our own image in every fellow man, in a different age. I believe that the key to our time lies in this respect for diversity”. [16]
- "Hillary (Rodham Clinton) was able to position herself nationally because her husband was president. She didn't have a political life beforehand and that isn't my case," Fernandez de Kirchner said in an interview with CNN en Espanol, referring to her 30-year career in Argentine politics.
References
- ^ a b La Nación, July1, 2007. Cristina Fernández será candidata.
- ^ Guareschi, Roberto (Nov. 5, 2005). "Not quite the Evita of Argentine legend". New Straits Times, p. 21.
- ^ DERF, 25 January 2007. El Jefe de Gabinete piensa en Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
- ^ Boston Herald, 6 February 2007. Argentina's Bill and Hillary: Which one will run?
- ^ Angus Reid Global Monitor: Polls & Research. 24 January 2007. Fernández de Kirchner is First Choice in Argentina.
- ^ Crónica, 30 January 2007. KIRCHNER O CRISTINA GANARAN EN PRIMERA VUELTA, SEGUN ENCUESTA.
- ^ BBC News, 1 July 2007. Argentine first lady bids to rule.
- ^ {http://en.epochtimes.com/news/7-7-2/57175.html}
- ^ Nota en IPS Noticias 26/03/2007
- ^ Fuente: Telam 29/10/2006
- ^ An article in the web site of Disappeared Persons 06/02/2007
- ^ Nota en Clarin 25/04/2006
- ^ Nota en Clarin 27/07/2005
- ^ Nota en Clarin 06/05/2006
- ^ Nota en Clarin 20/10/2005
- ^ A speech published in the web site of the Cervantes Virtual Center