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Cristina Fernández de Kirchner

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Cristina Elisabet Fernández de Kirchner
President-elect of Argentina
Assuming office
December 10, 2007
SucceedingNéstor Kirchner
Personal details
Born (1953-02-19) February 19, 1953 (age 71)
Argentina La Plata, Buenos Aires Province [1]
NationalityArgentine
Political partyFront for Victory,
(Justicialist Party)
SpouseNéstor Kirchner
ProfessionLawyer
Cristina Fernández (on the right) next to U.S. First Lady Laura Bush, on 5 November 2005, during the state visit of the Bushes for the Mar del Plata Summit of the Americas

Cristina Elisabet Fernández (born February 19 1953 in La Plata, Argentina), usually known by her married name Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, is the President-elect of Argentina, and wife of outgoing President Néstor Kirchner.

In the October 2007 general election, Fernández ran for President of Argentina, representing the ruling Front for Victory party.[2] She won the election with nearly 45% of the vote, and a 20% lead over her nearest rival—one of the widest margins a candidate has obtained since democracy returned in 1983—avoiding the need for a runoff election.[3] She will become Argentina's second female president, but the first to be elected.

Early life

Fernández was born in La Plata and studied law at the National University of La Plata during the 1970s, obtaining her law degree in 1979. During her studies there she met her future spouse, Néstor. They married on March 9, 1975.

Political career

Fernández started her political career in the Peronist Youth movement of the Justicialist Party in the 1970s. During the period of authoritarian rule in the country she and Néstor dropped out of politics and practised law in Río Gallegos. She picked up politics again in the late 1980s, and was elected Deputy to the provincial legislature of Santa Cruz in 1989, a position to which she was 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 in 2003, against two other Justicialist candidates and several other competitors. In the April 27, 2003 presidential election first round, former president Carlos Saúl Menem won the greatest number of votes (25%), but failed to get the votes necessary to win an overall majority. A second-round run-off vote between Menem and second-place finisher Néstor Kirchner was scheduled for May 18. Feeling certain that he was about to face a resounding electoral defeat, Menem decided to withdraw his candidacy, thus automatically making Kirchner the new president, with 21.97% of the votes (the lowest number in the history of the country). [4]

Cristina Fernández has become an itinerant ambassador for her husband's government. Her highly combative speech style polarizes Argentine politics (recalling the style of Eva Perón) but seems to be appreciated by a large part of society, notably among lower-income citizens.

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. Fernández won the elections by a 25% margin over González.

Election to Presidency of Argentina

File:8C9E82A93E82380.jpg
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, next to her husband to be president-elect of the Argentineans, 2007-10-28.

With Fernández leading all the pre-election polls by a wide margin, her challengers were trying to force her into a run-off. She needed either more than 45% of the vote, or 40% of the vote and a lead of more than 10% over her nearest rival, to win outright.

Fernández finally won the election in the first round with almost 45% of the vote, followed by 23% for Elisa Carrió (candidate for the Civic Coalition) and 17% for former Economy Minister Roberto Lavagna. Eleven others split the rest. [5] Carrió received support from the middle and upper classes, while Fernández was popular among the working and lower classes. [6]

The president elect begins a four-year term on 10 December 2007, facing challenges including inflation, unemployment, union demands for higher salaries, private investment in key areas, lack of institutional credibility (exemplified by the controversy surrounding the national statistics bureau, INDEC), utility companies demanding authorization to raise their fees, low availability of cheap credit to the private sector, and the upcoming negotiation of the defaulted foreign debt with the Paris Club. [7] [8] [9]

Personal life

The Kirchners have two children, Máximo and Florencia.[10]

Kirchner is noted for her wardrobe and shoe collection. She has been called "Imelda" and a "fashionista" in the press and the U.S.[11]

Statements

  1. “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”.[12]
  2. “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". [13]
  3. “I feel honored to belong to a generation that was a propitious victim of state terrorism”. [14]
  4. “Memory and freedom must be everybody’s daily exercise in order to prevent a new holocaust and a renewed violation of human rights”. [15]
  5. “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?". [16]
  6. “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 went AWOL”. [17]
  7. “Our society needs women to 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”. [18]
  8. “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”. [19]

References

  1. ^ http://www.cristina.com.ar/cristina.php
  2. ^ La Nación, July 1, 2007. Cristina Fernández será candidata
  3. ^ http://www.resultados2007.gov.ar/paginas/f_top.htm
  4. ^ La Nación, April 28, 2003. Menem y Kirchner disputarán la segunda vuelta el 18 de mayo
  5. ^ Clarín, 29 October 2007. Cristina se aleja por más de 20 puntos sobre el final del escrutinio.
  6. ^ Time, 29 October 2007. A Mixed Message in Argentina's Vote.
  7. ^ Página/12, 29 October 2007. Los desafíos en el área económica que esperan al próximo gobierno.
  8. ^ Clarín, economy supplement iEco, 28 October 2007. Empresarios contentos por la continuidad del modelo K.
  9. ^ La Nación, 24 May 2007. Prevén que el desempleo se ubicará en el 8% a fin de año.
  10. ^ Senadora Nacional Cristina E. Fernández De Kirchner
  11. ^ "Argentina's Fashionable Presidential Hopeful Cristina Kirchner Makes Hillary Clinton Look Dowdy" ABC News, July 4, 2007
  12. ^ Nota en IPS Noticias 26/03/2007
  13. ^ Fuente: Telam 29/10/2006
  14. ^ An article in the web site of Disappeared Persons 06/02/2007
  15. ^ Nota en Clarin 25/04/2006
  16. ^ Nota en Clarin 27/07/2005
  17. ^ Nota en Clarin 06/05/2006
  18. ^ Nota en Clarin 20/10/2005
  19. ^ A speech published in the web site of the Cervantes Virtual Center
Political offices
Preceded by President of Argentina
(President elect)
2007 - 		Succeeded by
Incumbent


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