Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
Cristina Kirchner | |
|---|---|
 | |
| President-elect of Argentina | |
| Assuming office 10 December 2007 | |
| Succeeding | Néstor Kirchner |
| First Lady of Argentina | |
| In office 25 May 2003 – 10 December 2007 | |
| Preceded by | Hilda de Duhalde |
| Succeeded by | Néstor Kirchner (First Gentleman) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | February 19, 1953 La Plata, Buenos Aires Province [1] |
| Nationality | Argentine |
| Political party | Front for Victory, (Justicialist Party) |
| Spouse | Néstor Kirchner |
| Alma mater | National University of La Plata |
| Profession | Lawyer |
Cristina Elisabet Fernández de Kirchner (born February 19 1953 as Cristina Elisabet Fernández), often known as Cristina Kirchner, is an Argentine politician from the Justicialist Party. She is the wife of the current President of Argentina, Néstor Kirchner, and a former senator for Buenos Aires Province.
In the October 2007 general election, Fernández ran for President of Argentina, representing the ruling Front for Victory party.[2] According to partial official results, 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] If final results confirm the current trend, she will become Argentina's second female president (after Isabel Martínez de Perón), but the first to be elected.
Fernández is noted for her wardrobe and shoe collection. She has been called "Imelda" and a "fashionista" by ABC News.[4] She and husband Néstor Kirchner have two children, Máximo and Florencia.[5]
Early life
Fernández was born in La Plata, province of Buenos Aires, 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 to the Santa Cruz provincial legislature of 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). [6]
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
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 44.7% 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 remaining 15%. Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).
[7]
[8]
Quotes
- “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 went AWOL”. [14]
- “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”. [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]
References
- ^ http://www.cristina.com.ar/cristina.php
- ^ La Nación, July 1, 2007. Cristina Fernández será candidata
- ^ http://www.resultados2007.gov.ar/paginas/f_top.htm
- ^ "Argentina's Fashionable Presidential Hopeful Cristina Kirchner Makes Hillary Clinton Look Dowdy" ABC News, July 4, 2007
- ^ Senadora Nacional Cristina E. Fernández De Kirchner
- ^ La Nación, April 28, 2003. Menem y Kirchner disputarán la segunda vuelta el 18 de mayo
- ^ Clarín, economy supplement iEco, 28 October 2007. Empresarios contentos por la continuidad del modelo K.
- ^ La Nación, 24 May 2007. Prevén que el desempleo se ubicará en el 8% a fin de año.
- ^ 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.
External links
- The official site of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
- The site of the Senate of the Argentine Republic