Profile: Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner - BBC News BBC News Profile: Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner 8 October 2013 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Cristina Fernandez: First woman elected and re-elected president in Argentina Following the announcement that Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is to undergo surgery, messages of support have been pouring in for the leader. Political adversaries campaigning for the congressional election at the end of the month as well as leaders from the main political forces and regional foreign heads of state have wished her well in messages posted on Twitter. Her operation comes almost three years after the death of her husband and predecessor in the post, Nestor Kirchner. His death robbed President Fernandez of her closest political confidant. Together, they made a formidable team and were often described as Argentina's power couple. Ms Fernandez secured re-election as president of Argentina in October 2011 with a landslide victory. It was in many ways a dramatic turnaround for Ms Fernandez, whose first term had been beset by rows and low approval ratings. While still a popular figure among low-income families and rural Argentines, who have benefited from the government's social policies, Ms Fernandez's honeymoon with the urban middle class seems to be over now.

In recent months, thousands have marched against rising prices, government restrictions on the purchase of US dollars, and high crime levels. 'Wives' duel' Cristina, as the majority of Argentines call her, has often been described as a strong-willed woman, obsessed with her image. But she is also a politician with a long track record. She was born on 19 February 1953 in La Plata, the capital of the province of Buenos Aires, where she graduated in law. She married Mr Kirchner, whom she met at university, in 1975. A year later, the couple went to live in his home region, the southern province of Santa Cruz. At the end of the 1980s, she embarked on her political career, first as a provincial then as a national deputy. But it was her husband who rose through the ranks of the Peronist polictical movement. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Ther Kirchners influenced and advised each other In 1991, Mr Kirchner was elected governor of Santa Cruz. He won two more terms, while Ms Fernandez supported him as a deputy.

When Mr Kirchner took office as president in 2003 - in the midst of one of the worst economic and social crises in the country - a similar pattern emerged. By then Cristina Fernandez was a senator with her own political weight in Congress, where she actively supported her husband's policies that included boosting social spending. Ms Fernandez cemented her political position in the congressional elections of 2005. Taking 46% of the votes, she won in the province of Buenos Aires in a contest dubbed "the wives' duel", beating her main rival, Hilda Gonzalez, the wife of the former President Eduardo Duhalde (2002-2003). During Mr Kirchner's administration, there was almost no decision taken in which she did not have a say, her influence exceeding that of an ordinary lawmaker. She was also the first senator to have an office within the presidential palace, provoking criticism from the opposition. The governing party insisted that the office was small and was hers by virtue of her position as first lady. Continuity Occupying the presidential palace, the Casa Rosada, in her own right, President Fernandez has broadly continued her husband's policies.

I have the honour to be the first woman to be re-elected in the country. What more could I want? Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, President of Argentina There have been further moves to address human rights abuses of the past. Argentina also became the first country in Latin America to legalise same-sex marriages. Under her, Argentina renewed contacts with the International Monetary Fund after years of hostility and moved to renew negotiations over paying Argentina's debts to the Paris Club of lender nations. While Argentina has recovered from the economic woes of the early 2000s, there is persistent, and under-reported, high inflation and many Argentines still live in poverty. President Fernandez has also been frequently at odds with the nation's powerful agricultural sector. Cristina Fernandez has been, perhaps inevitably, compared to Eva Peron, Argentina's legendary first lady who formed a formidable ruling partnership with her husband Juan Domingo Peron in the late 1940s and early 50s. But Evita was never elected. Cristina Fernandez, by contrast, was the country's first elected female president. "I have the honour to be the first woman to be re-elected in the country.

What more could I want," President Fernandez told supporters after her victory on 23 October . Argentina’s First Lady Elected President - The New York Times The New York Times Americas |Argentina’s First Lady Elected President Search Continue reading the main story Photo President Nestor Kirchner and first lady Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina celebrated her victory Sunday night in Buenos Aires. Credit Andres Stapff/Reuters BUENOS AIRES, Oct. 29 — Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the wife of Argentina ’s president, Néstor Kirchner, has become the first woman to be elected president in the country’s history, according to the latest official results published today. Mrs. Kirchner, 54, the center-left Peronist party candidate and a senator, defeated a fractured opposition and avoided a runoff. With 96 percent of the voting locations reporting, Mrs. Kirchner had 45 percent, ahead of Elisa Carrió, a center-left congresswoman, who had 23 percent, and Roberto Lavagna, a former finance minister, who had 17 percent, according to figures from the Ministry of Interior. Mrs.

Kirchner needed 45 percent of the vote outright, or 40 percent with at least a 10 percentage-point lead, to avoid a runoff. Rival candidates accused her party of “theft” of ballots and other irregularities. Mrs. Kirchner is the second woman to be elected leader of a South American nation in two years, after Michelle Bachelet, who became president of Chile last year. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Mrs. Kirchner declared victory late Sunday. In a speech, she said she felt a responsibility not only to lead her country, but “an immense responsibility for my gender.” She also paid homage to her husband’s accomplishments. Mr. Kirchner, who sat behind her, stood as supporters chanted, “Olé Olé, Olé, Néstor, Néstor!” He raised her arm. “She is going to improve the country much more than her husband,” said Graciela Aballay, 38, who watched Mrs. Kirchner’s speech with her 9-year-old daughter, María Victoria. More than anything, Mrs.

Kirchner’s victory would serve as a referendum on the past four years under her husband, who steered Argentina out of its worst economic crisis in 2001, when it defaulted on $80 billion in loans. Argentina is poised to record a sixth year of growth averaging about 8 percent. It is enjoying higher prices for exports of soybeans, corn and meat, has increased its reserves and reduced unemployment and inflation. Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up Privacy Policy While voters appeared to favor a continuation of Mr. Kirchner’s policies, the next president faces the challenge of taming inflation and a looming energy crisis. Despite approval ratings of more than 60 percent, Mr. Kirchner decided in July not to run for re-election, in what many analysts believe is a strategy to rotate the couple through the Pink House, the presidential palace here, for 12 years. Argentine election law allows a former president to run again after waiting four years on the sidelines. Mrs.

Kirchner, who was born seven months after Evita Perón died, grew up in La Plata, where the couple met in law school and were activists in the Peronist movement. They later moved to Mr. Kirchner’s home province of Santa Cruz, in Patagonia, where Mrs. Kirchner was elected a senator before her husband began his political career. Early in her political career, Mrs. Kirchner was nicknamed “Queen Cristina” by other politicians, a reference to her controlling personality. Facing a fractured opposition in the current election, she campaigned lightly, spending much of the past two months traveling in Europe and the United States trying to woo foreign investors and making it clear that, if elected, she would seek to improve Argentina’s standing abroad. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Argentina under Mr. Kirchner has embraced the notion of regional integration and has benefited from a stronger relationship with Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chávez, who agreed to refinance $5 billion of Argentina’s debt. Despite Mrs. Kirchner’s apparent victory, several rival candidates on Sunday reported voter irregularities in some Peronist strongholds.

“Each time a citizen went to vote, the voting authority at the table said there aren’t ballots for your party,” said Patricia Bullrich, the campaign chief for Ms. Carrió. “They said: ‘O.K., you still have to vote. Vote for a blank slate, but you have to vote.’” Ms. Bullrich singled out La Matanza, an industrial town on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, but also said that ballot theft had occurred throughout the province of Buenos Aires. Political analysts called the charges exaggerated. Vinod Sreeharsha contributed reporting. Cristina Kirchner | The Plaid Avenger The Plaid Avenger Years Left in Office: To 2015; no re-election possible Political Classification: Center-left Education: MS, PhD in Law Age: 63 (born February 19, 1953) Cristina Kirchner Facts and Information Important Points Cristina Kirchner is Argentina’s first elected female president. She has been president for two terms, and her second term ends in 2015. While she has been in office, same sex marriage became legal in Argentina which put it as the first Latin American country to do so and 10th in the world.

She was married to former President Nestor Kirchner who passed away in 2010. The peso has lost a lot of value since she has been in office. The Rundown “Don’t cry for me Argentina!” was a song written in 1978 for the musical Evita based on the life of a famous female political figure in Argentine history, Eva Peron. However, Eva Peron is the old leading lady in the history of Argentina…the new star of this whole show is Cristina Elisabet Fernandez de Kirchner. Cristina, (as she is called by many Argentines, because they are cool like that and are on a first-named basis) was elected president of Argentina in 2007. She was born Cristina Elisabet Fernandez on February 19, 1953 in La Plata which is in Buenos Aires, a city in Argentina. She met her husband in 1975 in law school in La Plata and they got married. She became Cristina Elisabet Fernandez de Kirchner. In Latin American culture, when a woman gets married, she keeps her full maiden name, but adds the “de” and her husband’s last name.

(The formula: First name, Middle Name, Maiden name + de + Husband’s last name). Now you may wonder why going in to detail about her husband’s name is important when we are talking about our little leading lady, well, this couple was no ordinary couple. Cristina married Nestor Kirchner who in 2003 became the president of Argentina. Cristina. While Nestor was president, Cristina not only took to being First Lady, but she also took political power by becoming a senator in Argentina while her husband was in power. Not only was she able to support her husband as a wife, but she was able to support him politically. This was not the first time that they had worked together politically. In 1991 Nestor became governor of Santa Cruz and as governor; he had Cristina as his deputy. Being that both of these people had power, and they were a strong couple…they were fondly known in Argentina as their own “Power Couple”. Power in this couple shifted when Nestor decided not to run for reelection in 2007, but supported Cristina in running for president in 2007.

She has been the only person in Argentina who has held political office while running for a presidential election. She ran against Hilda Gonzalez who had also been a first lady in Argentina (her husband, Eduardo Duhlde). This rivalry was known as “The Wives Duel”. Cristina ran as the candidate of the Justicialist party (also known as the Peronist party). She won with 45% of the votes and won in October of 2007. She was officially in office in December of 2007 as the 55th president of Argentina. Fortunately, Nestor was able to see his wife go from First Lady to president of all 41 million people who live in Argentine. He passed away from a heart attack on October 28 2010. Cristina Kirchner ran for reelection in 2011 and won, showing the world that not only as a woman could she become president, but she could do it TWICE. She has been on Forbes’ list of 25 most powerful women in the world a few times. This year, in 2014 she is number 19 at age 61.

Since the start of her presidency, Kirchner has continued the policies that her husband started during his term. Cristina was the first female president to be elected, Evita Peron was also president of Argentina but she became president after being Vice President when her husband passed away. As president, Cristina has changed a few things. One of the more well-known things that she has changed was that Argentina became the first country in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage, also being the 10th country to do this in the world. Also under her term, she brought the Argentine economy up from its rough times in the early 2000s but there is still high inflation and poverty still exists in this country. She has also had conflicts with the agricultural sector in Argentina which is pretty powerful. She has also renewed contracts with the International Monetary Fund and also started to negotiate payments to cover Argentina’s debts to the Paris Club of Lender Nations. This is important because overall…Argentina is not doing so great, especially economically. This is to try to repair things. Argentina has tried to prevent depreciation from powering inflation expectations and interest rates have gone up. These wage negotiations will really show how serious Argentina’s government is about controlling spending.

About 100 years ago Argentina was rich…but it was not modern. The educational system was not great because everyone focused more on agricultural things than furthering education, which in turn would have helped Argentina with technology and advancing more. That being said, Argentina not being modern meant that any external shake ups were hard and it meant that it lacked institutions to create effective policies. World War I was when Argentina’s economy received its first blow and since then there has been an ongoing division between farmers and workers. And under what has been known as “The Kirchner Era” Argentina was the world’s fourth largest exporter of wheat in 2006 (Nestor’s time) but since then, in 2013 they dropped to number 10. Besides the wheat exportation numbers dropping, other things have gone downhill in Argentina, unfortunately due to the leadership under Cristina. In 2005 during her husband’s term, the GDP had a surplus of 2% and in 2013, under Cristina, it became about 2% deficit. Poor Cristina has tried a few things to fix everything, but unfortunately they haven’t been fully effective.

In 2011 she issued controls on how many pesos could be converted into dollars by citizens. This led to a pretty successful black market for currency transactions and made people lose faith in the government’s economic policies. The biggest problems in Argentina can be pinpointed to being inflation and insecurity. In January of 2014, the peso’s value went down by 15% in two days. She is also pretty decent friends with Hugo Chavez who is not exactly a big friend of the West. In the past he had an alliance with Nestor Kirchner which really did help their governments in hard times when Argentina was trying to recover from an economic collapse of a decade ago. Chavez has been at the front of the leftist and anti-American populist wave in that region. In 2012 when Chavez won his reelection Cristina stated that it was not only a victory for Hugo Chavez but also for Argentina, Chavez echoed that sentiment. The IMF…does not. The IMF does not have a great opinion of Argentina. It stopped really being of help to Argentina in 2001 when things were not going so well in Argentina.

All of this has gone against Cristina in her hopes to change the constitution in order to be able to run for a third term, but being that most people do not believe that things will get any better until the next election and a new president, Cristina would not have really any high hopes of winning had she been able to run for a third term. But, do not lose all faith in Cristina! In 2012 there was compensation for Pepsol which became nationalized (it is an oil company), new inflation data that was credible, and there were cuts in water and gas subsidies. Also it does not hurt to be friends with the Pope! Poor Cristina has been through a lot and in November of 2013 she had to go through cranial surgery to remove a blood clot that was on the surface of her brain (called the dura). Having been through that, she decided she was not going to sit back and become a lame duck, she wants to power through to the end of her term and try to get as much done as she can to turn things around even though the majority does not think she can do it.

She also realized with the cranial surgery that she does not want to risk having the same fate as her late husband, and wants to make more time to spend with her family, which in the end really does make her just human. If someone does not put their health and loved ones first, before everything else, there are going to be problems in all the other aspects of their life. Hopefully this change will help Cristina until the end of her term! Photos Cristina Fernández de Kirchner - Biography Cristina Fernández de Kirchner Cristina Fernández de Kirchner as a child Cristina Elisabeth Fernández was born on February 19th, 1953 in La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina. During the 1970’s she attended the National University of La Plata where she studied law and politics. While at the university she met Néstor Carlos Kirchner, whom she married on March 9th, 1975. The couple had their first child, Máximo, in 1977, and their second child, Florencia, en 1980.

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Néstor Kirchner after his presidential victory During the 1970’s, when Argentina was under the authoritarian rule, Kirchner was involved in the Peronist Youth movement, but dropped out of politics to focus solely on law in Río Gallegos during the national political reorganization process. She reentered the political realm however in 1989, when she was elected to the Santa Cruz Province provincial legislature – “a position to which she was re-elected in 1993.” The subsequent years proved to be very successful for Kirchner’s political career: in 1995, Kirchner was elected to represent Santa Cruz in Argentine senate; in 1997, she was elected to the Chamber of Deputies (the lower house of the national congress); and in 2001, she, once again, was elected to the senate. While Cristina’s political career was flourishing, so was Néstor’s. In 2003, amidst an economic, social, and political crisis, Néstor ran for president against two other Justicialist candidates and the president at the time, Carlos Saúl Menem.

After a long and at times disputed campaign, Néstor won the presidency and was inaugurated on May 25th, 2003. Throughout her husband’s term, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner proved to be not only a decisive politician, but also a key member in gaining support from the Argentine population. For this reason, “she was the main candidate for Senator of the Front for Victory faction of her party in the province of Buenos Aires, [during] the October 2005 elections…Kirchner won the elections by a 25 percent margin” † over Hilda González de Duhalde, the other candidate. In 2007, Néstor decided not to run for reelection, but rather, he decided to support Cristina’s run for the presidency. The campaign proved to be very successful for Cristina – she not only won the presidency, but beat her nearest opponent, Elisa Carrió, by 22 percentage points.

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner after being elected president On December 10th, 2007, when Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was inaugurated, she became the first elected female president – Argentina’s first female president was Isabel Martínez de Perón became president after her husband, Juan Perón, died while in office. * “Cristina Fenández de Kirchner Biography” † “Fernández de Kirchner, Cristina” Spoof news: Argentina elects hot babe Argentina elects hot babe Topics: Politics , argentina , Shakira , maradona , Cristina Fernández de Kirchner , Babe Monday, 29 October 2007 Hi, I'm Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. I will be your new President. I hope we can be friends, feeble mortals. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the wife of Argentina's marginally corrupt president, Néstor Kirchner, looks set to become the first woman to be elected president of the country. In Buenos Aires, some Argentines celebrated a victory claimed by the large chested Mrs Fernández de Kirchner, the first lady, on Sunday night. Mrs.

Kirchner, 54, the center-left Peronist party candidate and a scumbag senator, was leading in early official results over disgraced former Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona and Shakira, a center-left Columbian congresswoamn and singer (who was accidentally included on voting ballots). With 30 percent of the voting locations reporting, Mrs. Kirchner had 43 percent, ahead of Mr. Maradona and Ms. Shakira, who each had 20 percent. Mrs. Kirchner needs 45 percent of the vote outright or 40 percent with at least a 10 percentage-point lead to avoid a playoff - which she would surely loose to the tubby superbly gifted Maradona. Rival candidates accused her party of "being d*ckwads" and other irregularities. Mrs. Kirchner would become the second woman to be elected leader of a South American nation in two years, after model and bimbo Gisele Bundchen, who became Brazilian president last year. Mrs. Kirchner declared victory late Sunday. In a speech, she said she would work to "make Argentian more corrupt" and "more poverty stricken" than it already is.

She also paid homage to her husband's accomplishments by saying that he was "a b*stard politician" who helped "create the witch you see before you now". Mr. Kirchner, who sat behind her dressed like a potted plant, stood as supporters chanted "show us your tits, Madam Presidente!". She raised her top for a brief peek of flesh. "She is selling us down the swanny," said Claudio Canniggia,a former disgraced Argentine player who played alongside Maradona in the 1990 World Cup final defeat to Germany. "Diego should have won. He would have implemented drugs programs and legalised prostitution for all our nation". Mrs Kirchner had this to say to dissenters: "I am master now. Come grovel at my feet, mortal humans". Mrs. Kirchner grew up in La Plata, once known as "Eva Perón City. She cliams to have watched the Madonna version of the film musical over 30 times - which many political analysts strongly dispute. The Kirchners met in kindergarten in La Plata, where they were activists in the Peronist movement - in Argentina activism starts early. They later moved to Mr.

Kirchner's home province of Santa Cruz, in Patagonia, where Mrs. Kirchner became a travelling hobo entertaining other hobo's on trains, where she gained the nickname "Cristina the Wench". She fell into politics by accident after "accidentally" kipnapping a local mayor and demanding to be made a senator from which her dramatic career rise really took off. Argentina' economy is in a slump and Miss Kirchner has said she will continue this economic downturn by spening all the nations money on imported swiss chocolate and cheese. Argentina, she says, will also join the space race. Experts have yet to tell her that the Space race ended decades ago but say they will inform her "when the time is right".

Make Jesus Budda's day - give this story five thumbs-up (there's no need to register, the thumbs are just down there!) Argentina gets first elected female president - World - CBC News Argentina gets first elected female president The Associated Press Posted: Oct 29, 2007 10:36 PM ET Last Updated: Oct 29, 2007 8:12 PM ET Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner makes the victory sign to supporters at her party's headquarters in Buenos Aires after winning the Argentine presidential election Sunday. ((Daniel Luna/Associated Press)) Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, thewife of Argentine President Nestor Kirchner,will take her husband's jobDec. 10, after beating her closest rival by a wide margin to become the country's first elected female president. Fernandez will be Argentina's second female president; Isabel Peron, who married Juan Peron after Eva Peron's death, was his vice-president when he died in 1974 and served for 20 chaotic months before a military coup. Following Michelle Bachelet of Chile, Fernandez will become the second woman to takea South Americancountry's highest office.

Some analysts predicted Fernandez would sweep the female vote and it appeared on Sunday night that they were right. Argentinean women interviewed by AP Television in Buenos Aires seemed to like the idea of a woman running the country. "The fact that she is a woman means that she has different ideals and more sensitivity, and she looks like a very intelligent woman," said Flor Bernardo. The runner-up was also a woman. With more than 96 per cent of polling stations reporting, Fernandez had 45 per cent of the vote, with former lawmaker Elisa Carrio getting 23 per cent and former economy minister Roberto Lavagna getting 17 per cent. Carrio said on Monday she was proud of being the new leader of the Argentine opposition. Her party, the Civic Coalition or Coalicion Civica, is a political coalition that includes socialists and Peronists. "We, women, we like more to see things being born rather than take possession of something that already exists.

Having gone through many adversities in the last years, get the chance to witness and be part of the creation of this big political reality that we have, it is the biggest prize that a woman and a person can experience and the best legacy I can leave to my children and all the children of Argentina," Carrio said. Fernandez has a tough job Fernandez rode into the presidency on her husband's shoulders but she has a tough job ahead. Argentina's economy is overheating, voters are angry about inflation and crime and unpopular hikes in utility rates seem inevitable. Fernandez ran an unorthodox campaign, refusing to debate and spending much of the time abroad in photo ops with world leaders. Her success was largely due to the accomplishments of Kirchner, who oversaw a recovery from a deep financial crisis, with growth rates of more than 8 per cent a year. But one-quarter of Argentina's 37 million people still live in poverty, 9 per cent are unemployed and all are struggling with inflation that analysts agree is much higher than the government admits.

Elections in Argentina: Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s Rendezvous with History - Knowledge@Wharton Elections in Argentina: Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s Rendezvous with History Nov 14, 2007 Quote Ultimately, the forecasts turned out to be true. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, wife of Argentine president Néstor Kirchner, will become president after winning by a wide margin in the first round of elections on October 28. Fernández has made history. Never before in Argentina has a woman been elected chief of state. It’s also the first time that a woman in Argentina or anywhere else has succeeded her husband in that office as the result of the electoral process. Trained as an attorney, Fernández, the mother of two sons, has been a senator from Buenos Aires. Last Sunday, she was elected president with 44.86% of the vote, a margin of more than 20% over Elisa Carrió, a Social Christian. In Argentina, only one woman has ever before become president, the widow of Juan Domingo Perón.

His third wife, Isabelita Perón, succeeded Perón in that position from 1974 to 1976. After the results became known, Fernández told a crowd at a Buenos Aires hotel that she feels a double responsibility, both for the president and for her sex. Fernández, a candidate of the Peronista FPV party (Front for Victory), thanked her husband, noting that “with his successes and mistakes, he has shown that he is a man who is deeply committed to his country and his people.” Néstor Kirchner and his wife will exchange Argentina’s political documents beginning on December 10. Fernández will go from being the country’s First Lady to being president. Her husband will go from being president to “presidential spouse.” Several factors are involved in this unusual turn of events. According to Carlos Malamud, chief Latin American researcher at the Real Instituto Elcano, “It was the decision of the president alone. He chose her and designated her to succeed him.” Malamud makes the usual comparisons between Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Hillary Clinton.

He says that although both women are lawyers and wives of presidents as well as senators, Clinton — unlike Fernández — took her senatorial post after her husband ceased to be president. Second, Fernández was tapped to be the presidential candidate when her husband was still president. Finally, he notes, “In order to get elected, Hillary needs to undergo a tough process of primaries, which is something that doesn’t happen here.” Nevertheless, Juan Carlos Martínez Lázaro, professor at the Instituto de Empresa (IE) business school in Spain, believes that both women are alike in that “they have both shown they can act on their own when it comes to political issues.” Regarding Fernández, he says, “She is not a woman who is a decoration. She’s not there just because her husband decided to put her there.” Cristina Fernández de Kirchner also lives in the shadow of another great figure in Argentine political history — actress and politician Eva Duarte, better known as “Evita”. Comparisons with Evita, the second wife of Juan Domingo Perón, captured the attention of the poor and the working class, and helped bring out the female vote. Evita didn’t manage to reach the vice presidency nor was that her desire.

She suffered from cancer and Perón himself prevented her from doing that. However, Evita became a myth. Both women share a striking physical appearance and a strong personality. Raúl Aragón, professor and director of the public opinion researcher center at UAI, the Interamerican Open University, defines Fernández, 54, as “a sort of post-modern Evita. She has substituted ‘the people’ for the ‘shirtless’ ones [of Evita’s era]. She has class. It’s as if she wanted to sing beyond her register; she forces the cords and loses the most subtle tones.” Sponsored Content: According to Martínez Lázaro, Fernández’ skill at exploiting the currents of populism comes from Peronism and it has vaulted her into the presidency. Nevertheless, her taste for fashion, make-up and populist speechmaking are not the only factors that have helped her become the next president. The key has been her role in overcoming the economic crisis that hit Argentina between 2001 and 2002. “The agony that existed four or five years ago no longer exists,” says Malamud.

“Four years ago, poverty, social inequality and jobs were the people’s biggest preoccupations. Now they worry most about corruption, public insecurity and political transparency.” Kirchner gets credit for the economic recovery. “It could not be any other way,” Malamud says, “because he is identified as the national leader, even more so than Lavagna, the former economics minister who was the real force behind the recovery. Lavagna was also one of the presidential candidates. Lavagna’s proximity to Kirchner hurt him in the elections. “His proposal to raise the value of Argentina’s currency wound up losing credibility among a good part of the electorate. The person who benefited most directly was Elisa Carrió.” On the other hand, Malamud says, the opposition to Fernández was divided and unable to get people excited about its proposals. This helped strengthen Fernández’ candidacy. According to Malamud, the people saw her as the embodiment and continuation of power. But if 45% of voters opted for this continuity, why didn’t they propose that Néstor Kirchner himself be reelected? According to Malamud, Kirchner’s believed that whenever an Argentine president is re-elected, things eventually turn out badly.

If he decided to present himself as a candidate, his political capital would soon be destroyed. “The best way to avoid that was to present his own candidate who could win and continue his work — with him in the second spot. And since this is a society focused on married life, and their marriage was working out, he focused on that formula.” Malamud believes that there will be little difference between the management styles of Néstor and Cristina Kirchner. Fernández’ tour of Latin America, the U.S. and Europe before the elections made people think that the future president will have more of an international vocation than her husband has. Martínez Lázaro, who was in Spain during Fernández’ visit to that country, believes that she moves better in international settings than her husband, despite the fact that international politics “has never interested her or been something that she exploited.” For Malamud, Fernández’ taste for travel does not translate into any changes in Argentine foreign policy.

He notes that she was very blunt in her comments to the press a few days before the elections when she said she was going to try to maintain good relations with both the United States and Venezuela, but added, “That is going to be more and more difficult.” As Malamud puts it: “Her foreign tour was marked more by official receptions than by any serious intention to change her country’s foreign policy.” A Flagging Economic Rebound? Argentina has clearly emerged from the hole that it fell into in 2001. According to Martínez Lazaro, Fernández knows how to capitalize on the economic boom that is obvious in the country. The economic figures are very optimistic. INDEC, the national institute for statistics and census, estimates that the GDP will grow by 8.7% during the second quarter of 2007 compared with the same period last year. Since the crisis, the unemployment rate has fallen by about ten points and it is currently at about 8.5%. The poverty rate has also been drastically reduced, from 50% then to slightly more than 25% of the population today.

Despite such numbers, Martínez Lázaro believes that we are seeing a clear “rebound effect” after the country suffered such a deep drop in economic activity. He compares this process with throwing a ball on the ground: “The harder you throw a ball, the stronger the bounce. But we realize from the outset that the ball bounces a lot and that the second bounce will be smaller and the third even smaller. This rebound is running out of steam.” He notes that Argentina managed to get out of the crisis and grow at a high rate in recent years because of the enormous devaluation of the Argentina peso. In addition, the primary products that Argentina exports have higher prices now. “The Argentine peso used to have parity with the dollar, and when this parity was eliminated, the peso suffered a devaluation of about 300%. This extremely strong devaluation led to a very high volume of exports; foreign markets were the ones who led this recovery,” he comments. Add to this the fact that prices for soy beans, for example, are at their historic highs amid growing demand, especially from countries in Asia.

Despite the fact that the IMF forecasts growth of more than 7.5% for Argentina this year, Martínez Lazaro believes that important imbalances are cropping up. Argentina, he says, “has an inflation rate that is close to double digits. We now see the impact of the country’s devaluation and how this has been importing inflation for all these years as a result of the low value of the peso.” Official data places the cumulative inflation rate (from January to September 2007) at 5.8%. However, the IMF estimates that at the end of this year, it could reach 9.5%. This lack of competitiveness, says Martínez Lázaro, “will wind up taking a toll.” With regard to inflation, he suggests that INDEC needs to be revived because it has totally lost prestige. The media, the opposition and some specialists are accusing the government of intervening in this supposedly independent organization in order to keep inflation below double digits. In addition, suggests Malamud, the Argentine government will have to face the energy crisis. To do that, it will have to attract new foreign investment.

Before that takes place, he says, “they will have to settle their debt with the Club of Paris (19 creditor countries), which amounts to more than $6 billion and provide guarantees of legal security [to foreign investors].” This debt has become a problem for the Argentine economy because it prevents potential European investors from borrowing money to do business in Argentina. International investors, adds Martínez Lázaro, “have not trusted the Kirchner government; a lot has to change if investors are to regain their confidence in Argentina.” He adds that the disproportionate level of public spending during this election year might lead to higher deficits, which are one of the Achilles heels of Argentina’s economy. “In recent years, Argentina has accumulated a surplus in its current account as a result of the export bonanza. However, this surplus is getting smaller because the bonanza has led to an increase in imports.” Despite there concerns, however, many observers believe that Fernández represents continuity for Argentina. “The big surprise would be if there weren’t any [continuity],” says Martínez Lázaro. Fernández defines her model as “the accumulation of growth with social inclusion.” This makes people think that there will be a significant emphasis on social spending.

However, he notes, these perpetual subsidies mean “bread for today but hunger tomorrow.” Beyond the realm of economics, the new government will have to solve other problems, adds Malamud. These issues include public insecurity, corruption, and the need to rebuild Argentina’s democratic institutions. Citing Knowledge@Wharton Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner | president of Argentina | Britannica.com Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner Emilio Fermin Mignone Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, née Cristina Fernández (born February 19, 1953, La Plata , Argentina ), Argentine lawyer and politician who in 2007 became the first female elected president of Argentina. She succeeded her husband, Néstor Kirchner , who had served as president from 2003 to 2007. Argentine Pres. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner Markus Schreiber/AP Fernández attended the National University of La Plata, where she met Kirchner, a fellow law student. In 1975 she and Kirchner married.

One year later, after the military junta seized control of Argentina, the couple fled La Plata for Néstor’s hometown of Río Gallegos in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz . There they opened a law practice and, with the return of democracy in 1983, became active in electoral politics. Fernández de Kirchner was a provincial delegate to the Justicialist ( Peronist ) Party (PJ) convention in 1985 and was later elected to the provincial legislature. Her husband won election as mayor of Río Gallegos in 1987, and in 1991 she became the first lady of Santa Cruz when her husband was elected to the first of three consecutive four-year terms as provincial governor. Fernández de Kirchner twice represented Santa Cruz in the Argentine Senate (1995–97, 2001–05). She also served (1997–2001) in the Chamber of Deputies. During her tenure in Congress, she was one of the PJ’s most vocal critics of the Peronist administration of Pres. Carlos Menem , voting frequently against his legislative initiatives .

Her husband assumed the presidency on May 25, 2003, after Menem—facing a certain loss to Kirchner in a second-round runoff—withdrew from that year’s presidential race. In 2005 Kirchner was in a struggle with former president Eduardo Duhalde for control of the PJ in the crucial province of Buenos Aires , where 38 percent of the Argentine population resided. The struggle peaked in October when Fernández de Kirchner squared off against Duhalde’s spouse, Hilda González de Duhalde, in the Buenos Aires province senatorial election. In that contest Fernández de Kirchner won 46 percent of the vote, easily defeating González de Duhalde, who claimed just 20 percent. While the high-profile victory helped her husband win acknowledgment as the undisputed leader of Peronism, it also reaffirmed Fernández de Kirchner’s growing political influence and helped insulate her against charges of inexperience during her own run for the presidency in 2007. In 2007 Kirchner decided not to run for reelection, and Fernández de Kirchner began campaigning for the presidency.

She held a commanding lead in the polls, and in the election on October 28 she captured 45 percent of the final presidential vote tally, nearly double that of her closest competitor, Elisa Carrió, who garnered 23 percent. Fernández de Kirchner formally assumed office on December 10, 2007, to begin a four-year term. Almost immediately she encountered criticism from the United States , which claimed it had intercepted campaign funds sent from the Venezuelan government of Hugo Chávez . Ringling Bros. Folds Its Tent The following spring Fernández de Kirchner imposed a new tax system to significantly increase export taxes on grains in an attempt to control Argentine food prices. Her actions were met with large-scale strikes and protests by farmers’ unions throughout the country, who complained that the increase would reduce their profits. Roadways were blocked so grain trucks could not pass, resulting in food shortages. The strikes continued for four months and split the country into sides: those who supported the government and those who advocated for the farmers. In June Fernández de Kirchner agreed to submit the measure to Congress. The increase in taxes was approved by the Chamber of Deputies but was rejected by the Argentine Senate by one vote.

In the midterm legislative elections held in June 2009, the president’s ruling coalition lost power in both houses of Congress. The results reflected her declining popularity as well as that of her husband, who lost his race for a congressional seat. Structures of Government: Fact or Fiction? The Kirchners rebounded from that setback, however, thanks to a fragmented opposition and a booming economy. Fernández de Kirchner pursued popular social programs, and in July 2010 she signed legislation that made Argentina the first country in Latin America to allow same-sex marriage . Also in 2010 Fernández de Kirchner’s administration engineered a successful debt swap with two-thirds of the “holdout” creditors who had rejected Argentina’s 2005 restructuring of debt upon which the country had defaulted in 2001. That swap, combined with that of 2005, ensured that more than 90 percent of the original bondholders participated in a restructuring agreement.

Fernández de Kirchner’s husband was regarded as a likely candidate in the 2011 presidential election, and his sudden death in October 2010 triggered widespread sympathy for Fernández de Kirchner, who campaigned for reelection in his stead. On October 23, 2011, almost a year to the day after her husband’s death, Fernández de Kirchner won a landslide victory to secure a second term as Argentina’s president, and her ruling party reclaimed its majority in Congress. In January 2012 she took a 20-day medical leave from office in order to be treated for thyroid cancer. However, her spokesperson subsequently announced that Fernández de Kirchner had been misdiagnosed, as medical tests revealed no cancer cells in her thyroid, which had been removed. Britannica Lists & Quizzes Editor Picks: Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies Climbing inflation began to undermine the Argentine economy, as price and export controls imposed by Fernández de Kirchner’s government proved largely ineffective. The economy was also threatened by creditors who had refused to accept any of the earlier debt restructuring and who undertook ongoing legal efforts to recover all the money they had lent to the Argentine government.

In June 2014 Fernández de Kirchner was unable to prevent Argentina from going into technical default after the U.S. Supreme Court chose not to hear Argentina’s appeal of a lower court decision that had ordered the country to pay the first tranche of a total of about $15 billion to the U.S. hedge funds that had refused to restructure the debt. That decision prohibited Argentina from making interest payments to those creditors who had agreed to restructuring. In January 2015 the still-struggling economy became a secondary concern for Fernández de Kirchner, as she found herself at the centre of a scandal involving the death of a special prosecutor who had been investigating the 1994 vehicle bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires in which 85 individuals were killed. On January 18—the day before he was scheduled to testify before Congress and several days after releasing a report in which he accused Fernández de Kirchner of trying to undermine his investigation—the prosecutor, Alberto Nisman , was found dead of a gunshot wound to his head in his apartment.

Nisman, who had begun investigating the bombing in 2004 and who had concluded early on that the government of Iran was behind the attack, accused Fernández de Kirchner, her foreign minister, and others of engaging in negotiations with Iran to cover up the responsibility of Iranian government officials for the bombing in return for Iran entering into a trade deal with Argentina. Shortly after the discovery of Nisman’s death, the president announced her belief that he had killed himself. As public outrage mounted and conspiracy theories swirled, however, Fernández de Kirchner used social media as a forum to reverse her stance. She indicated that she now believed that Nisman had been the victim of foul play and that rogue intelligence agents had misled him regarding her involvement in the bombing investigation in an attempt to besmirch her reputation.Building on that statement, Fernández de Kirchner went on television on January 27 to announce her plans to disband the country’s domestic intelligence agency, the Secretariat of Intelligence (SI), and to send Congress legislation to create a new, more transparent security organization. Connect with Britannica Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram Pinterest Fernández de Kirchner was prohibited by the constitution from running for another term in the 2015 presidential election.

Her handpicked successor, Daniel Scioli , the former governor of Buenos Aires province, was thought to be something of a shoo-in, but he only narrowly won the first round of voting in October and failed to gain the 45 percent of the vote necessary to prevent a runoff election. That runoff, held on November 22, was won by the conservative candidate, Mauricio Macri , who took about 51 percent of the vote to about 48 percent for Scioli. Cristina, Get Serious | Opinion | The Harvard Crimson The Harvard Crimson Tico Travels Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the president of Argentina, is a remarkable individual by any measure. The first woman to be elected president of her country, her tenure has seen the enactment of the first same-sex marriage law on the continent and the establishment of a Ministry of Science, Technology, and Productive Innovation. She’s been a forceful leader, unafraid to make controversial decisions in the face of strong opposition. However, the choices she makes are increasingly the wrong ones. And the cause of this seems to be personal, not political.

Nowhere was this more on display than at the talk that President Kirchner offered at the Harvard Kennedy School on September 27, where she delivered an address and took questions from the audience. The event was highly anticipated, given that Kirchner usually spurns attempts by journalists to ask questions. She seems to have a vitriolic dislike of journalists in general. When one student remarked that, under the circumstances, he felt fortunate to talk to her, she dismissively replied, “You can’t repeat what two or three journalists write.” Well, journalists point out the truth. That’s more or less their job. Judging by Kirchner’s actions, which have severely curbed freedom of the press in Argentina, that’s not something she’s comfortable with. Let’s get back to the talk, however. At first, I was pleased to have landed a front-row seat, giving me an unobstructed view of President Kirchner. When the question-and-answer session started, however, I quickly wished I were someplace else. The manner in which she responded to pointed, critical queries made me cringe in my seat, and I’m sure I wasn’t alone.

Following some of her statements, the entire room let out a gasp, as if to express, “She did not just say that.” One audience member, who identified himself as an Argentine student at the Kennedy School, asked Kirchner why Colombia and other regional neighbors are capable of economic growth without currency controls, while Argentina’s economy is stagnant with such measures in place. Currency controls do, in fact, exist in Argentina, and they are a serious cause of concern for many members of Argentine society. These days, the real estate market in Buenos Aires is basically paralyzed , as properties cannot be bought and sold in dollars—only the notoriously unstable peso. So how did President Kirchner respond to this student? “We’re at Harvard. Come on, please. Those things are not from Harvard,” she sentenced, her voice dripping with exasperation. In her view , since this particular Argentine studies abroad and has access to dollars, he had no right to pose such a question. “You think you can really talk about these currency problems?” To call her response disrespectful would be a euphemism.

Whether this young man lives abroad or not is irrelevant—as an Argentine citizen, he has the right and duty to express concern about an issue that impacts his family, his friends, and his country at large. This aside, however, the president’s abrupt dismissal of his question by means of an ad hominem attack suggests something about the way her intellect functions. Kirchner’s initial reaction to any criticism—her only reaction, perhaps—is emotional rather than rational. She’s an intelligent woman; she was perfectly capable of a well-reasoned, respectful response to the question. Yet she felt the immediate need to assert her power rather than justify the way she’s using it. Need another example? When another student asked if Argentina’s economic and security woes meant it was time for some self-criticism, she sarcastically said she expected better questions from an Ivy League audience. Once again, Kirchner turned a constructive debate into negative mudslinging. I don’t mean to draw my conclusions solely from one public appearance. Rather, this event merely confirmed the media’s portrayal of President Kirchner as a testy, autocratic populist.

Many Argentines joke that their country is a “ dedocracy ,” from the Spanish word for finger, because her fingerprints are on every government action. She has surrounded herself with a small circle of laughably incompetent advisors , providing herself with an environment in which no one contests her final word. Kirchner actually spent most of the summer waging what many perceive as a campaign of vendetta against Daniel O. Scioli, the popular governor of the province of Buenos Aires, who suggested that he might compete in the next presidential elections. Ironically, he belongs to the same political party as her. This, then, is the image of herself that President Kirchner left us with at Harvard. Arrogant? Certainly. Narcissistic? Don’t doubt it. Megalomaniac? That might be going a bit too far, but she’s certainly on the right track. The irony of my position isn’t lost on me—I’m criticizing President Kirchner in personal terms for her personal attacks on others. The problem is that, for Kirchner, the political and the personal are no longer separate. Until she learns that they are, she’ll capsize her country along with her personal reputation. Jorge A.

Araya ’14, a Crimson editorial executive, is an economics concentrator in Dunster House. His column appears on alternate Mondays. Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our email newsletter. Read more in Opinion BBC NEWS | Americas | Argentina's first lady wins poll Argentina's first lady wins poll Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner consistently led the opinion polls Argentina's current first lady, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, has secured victory in the country's presidential election. With ballots counted at almost all polling stations, Mrs Kirchner had an unassailable 44.9% lead. Her nearest rival, former lawmaker Elisa Carrio, has admitted defeat, trailing on 23% of the vote. Mrs Kirchner will succeed her husband Nestor Kirchner and become Argentina's first elected female president. "We've won by a wide margin," she told supporters in a speech at her campaign headquarters at a hotel in Buenos Aires.

ELECTION ARITHMETIC Winner needs 45%, or 40% plus 10-point lead New president to be sworn in on 10 December President serves four-year term Keeping politics in the family "But this, far from putting us in a position of privilege, puts us instead in a position of greater responsibilities and obligations," she said. As her husband, the outgoing president, stood at her side, she said she would build on his work. "We have repositioned the country, fought poverty and unemployment, all these tragedies that have hit Argentines," she said, referring to the country's recovery from the 2001 economic crash. "We know it's necessary to deepen the changes, and to do that, we need to rally the biggest number of Argentines to help us," she said. Elisa Carrio, who performed well in the capital Buenos Aires, secured 23% of the overall vote, with ex-economy minister Roberto Lavagna in third place on 17%. Eleven candidates split the rest of the ballots.

Mrs Kirchner needed more than 45% of the full vote, or 40% with a 10 point lead over the next nearest candidate, to win the presidency without facing a second round of voting. Roberto Lavagna and Elisa Carrio are Mrs Kirchner's main rivals Polling was extended by one hour in some parts of the country to 1900 local time (2200 GMT) to accommodate a late rush of voters. Besides a new president, voters were choosing eight provincial governors, a third of the Senate and about half of the Chamber of Deputies. Some 27 million people were eligible to vote. Economy and crime The economy and rising crime have been the two main issues in campaigning. Mr Kirchner has overseen a return to stability and some prosperity since the economy collapsed six years ago, plunging thousands into poverty, the BBC's Daniel Schweimler reports from Buenos Aires. Argentines give their views on candidates and issues In pictures But there are fears over how strong the economy really is and general scepticism over official statistics suggesting inflation is under control.

Mrs Kirchner's critics have attacked her for failing to outline exactly what her policies are, but voters who spoke to the BBC's Will Grant in Buenos Aires said the opposition had failed to offer any real alternative. Surprise candidate Just a few months ago, Mr Kirchner was riding high in the opinion polls and looked set to continue for a second term.

Question: Cristina Kirchner became the first elected woman president of which country?
Answer: Argentina