ELECTIONS-ARGENTINA:
Cristina’s Turn
By Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, (IPS)
- For anyone close to
Argentine President
Néstor Kirchner, it's
almost impossible to
talk about him without
mentioning his wife,
Cristina Fernández de
Kirchner, who was
elected as his successor
Sunday. Although they
have very different
personalities, they are
like two branches of the
same tree -- their
mutual political
platform.
The first woman to be
directly elected
president in Argentina
garnered nearly 45
percent of the vote,
followed by another
female candidate, Elisa
Carrió, who took 23
percent, the electoral
commission reported.
"I admire her. I like
her a lot. She was able
to forge her own space,
and a strong image, not
independent of her
husband but coexisting
with him, without
clashing."
This is what Fernández
had to say about Hillary
Clinton, the wife of
former U.S. president
Bill Clinton. Like
Cristina, Hillary is a
senator and lawyer, and
she hopes to become the
presidential candidate
of the Democratic Party
for next year’s
elections.
In a world where women
presidents and prime
ministers are still an
exception to the rule,
the Kirchner-Fernández
political partnership is
similar to that of the
Clintons. When the
Argentine couple met
with former president
Clinton a month ago, in
New York, Bill told
Néstor that everyone was
asking him what he would
do if his wife was
elected president in
2008.
"We both can give the
same answer: I'm going
to do whatever she tells
me," he joked. Kirchner
laughed, but didn't
respond. "Why didn't you
say anything?" his wife
asked later, to which
the president replied
"Have you ever said
everything I wanted you
to say?"
"Cristina", as the
president-elect
identified herself
during the campaign, was
born in a middle-class
family in the city of La
Plata, the capital of
the province of Buenos
Aires, on Feb. 19, 1953,
a few months after the
death of Eva Duarte (Evita),
the wife of then
president Juan Domingo
Perón (1946-1955 and
1973-1974), who became a
powerful leader in her
own right as first lady
and was already a legend
before her early death
by cancer.
Cristina’s father was a
bus driver and her
mother a homemaker. He
belonged to the Radical
Civic Union (UCR) and
she to the Justicialista
(Peronist) Party -- the
two forces that governed
Argentina throughout the
20th century.
"I inherited the best of
each of them," says
Fernández, who grew up
as a dissident Peronist
and ended up standing in
Sunday’s elections with
a running-mate who came
from the ranks of the
UCR, Julio Cobos.
"My mother had photos of
Evita in her wardrobe,"
recalls Fernández. Evita
was beautiful in the
photos, "like a fairy,"
she remembers.
But Fernández says she
identifies with Evita’s
other image: that of a
combative, austere woman
with her hair up in a
bun and clenched fist
held high, which was
taken up in the 1970s by
the young
revolutionaries of the
Peronist left.
The president-elect is a
good public speaker, who
does not need to read
from her notes,
something that her
husband, who has a lisp,
admires.
But she is also said to
be cold. Unlike
Kirchner, she avoids
contact with people and
is not easily moved. If
she cries, she does so
in private.
After beginning her
studies in psychology,
she entered law school
at the University of La
Plata. She met Kirchner
during her student
years, in the mid-1970s,
when they were active
members of the Peronist
University Youth. But
she fell out with the
movement’s leaders.
Since those days, she
has had a reputation as
an intelligent,
good-looking woman who
takes great care over
her personal appearance.
"The idea that if you
are attractive you have
to prove that you are
intelligent always
irritated me," she told
Olga Wornat in the
journalist’s authorized
biography, titled "Queen
Cristina".
In that sense she is
Kirchner’s opposite, who
has made his slightly
dishevelled look a
political trademark. Nor
were they similar in
college, where she was a
much better student.
Wornat, who has known
her since their student
days, describes
Fernández as
indomitable,
intelligent,
controversial, bold in
challenging the status
quo and "ambitious like
no other woman since
Evita." She is also
moody and volatile (some
believe she is bipolar),
vehement, generous,
arrogant, vain, a good
companion "and loyal,
very loyal," says the
author.
When the 22-year-old
Fernández met Kirchner,
he was drunk. She "made
him study, neatened up
his image a bit, kept
him away from café
meetings and guitar
fests," and tried
unsuccessfully to awaken
an interest in
literature, wrote
another journalist,
Walter Curia, in his
book "The Last Peronist:
The Hidden Face of
Kirchner".
They got married six
months after they met,
on the eve of the 1976
coup. After a brief
period in La Plata, they
moved to Río Gallegos,
the capital of the
southern province of
Santa Cruz, where they
had two children, shared
a law practice, saved
and invested and built
up a small fortune, and
began to project their
future political
careers.
"We are a very symbiotic
couple," Fernández said
last week in one of the
few interviews she gave
to the local press.
With the restoration of
democracy in 1983, after
the bloody-seven-year
military dictatorship,
they returned to their
political activism. In
1985 she was a member of
the Justicialista
national convention
representing Santa Cruz,
and in 1989 she was
elected to the
provincial legislature.
In 1987, her husband was
elected mayor of the
provincial capital, and
in 1991 governor of
Santa Cruz, a post he
held for three
consecutive terms.
Fernández was reelected
in 1993 as provincial
deputy. A year later,
she and her husband both
took part in the
constituent assembly
that amended the
constitution, and she
began to gain a
reputation at the
national level. In 1995
she was elected to the
Senate, in 1997 to the
lower house of Congress,
and in 2001 to the
Senate once again,
representing Santa Cruz,
her husband’s home
province.
In 1997, she was
marginalised by the
Justicialista
legislators after voting
against several of the
governing party’s draft
laws. It was the last
stretch of the
government of Carlos
Menem (1989-1999), who
has since then been a
political adversary of
Kirchner and Fernández.
A few months after she
won a seat in the Senate
in 2001, Kirchner told
her he would run for the
presidency, to which she
responded "You are
completely crazy." By
then, Fernández was a
well-known and
well-respected figure on
the national political
scene, but her husband
was not.
As a result of the
backing he received from
Justicialista leader
Eduardo Duhalde,
Kirchner came in second
place in the first round
of elections in 2003,
with just over 22
percent of the vote. But
his rival, the badly
weakened Menem, pulled
out before the runoff in
the face of certain
defeat, and Kirchner was
sworn in.
Fernández does not like
the label "feminist,"
but she is a strong
critic of "machismo" and
sexism. She has
traditionally evaded
legislative work on
commissions that are
identified with
"women’s" issues, is
opposed to the
legalisation of
abortion, and believes
women are better suited
than men for homemaking
and child-rearing.
She admits that her
career has kept her
further away from her
kids than she would have
liked. "I feel guilty,
like any woman," she
says. "When I was
elected to the Senate
many reporters asked me
how I would deal with
raising my kids --
something they didn’t
ask male legislators."
But her husband
understands and
encourages her, as he
would a professional
partner. "This year is
Kirchner’s 20th in
different executive
posts, and it's my 20th
in legislative
positions. We are part
of the same political
project," she says.
Of course, they also
have their arguments. "I
argue very vehemently,"
she says. Those who are
close to the couple say
he does not decide on
anything without
listening to her first,
although afterwards he
reaches his own
decisions.
She has also made an
effort to mark her
independence since the
day he was elected
president. When Kirchner
was sworn in, she
applauded him from her
seat in the Senate.
Since then she has
insisted on being
described as "first
(female) citizen" rather
than "first lady".
But she has also made
use of her public
position during her
campaign. Like virtually
no other president’s
wife, she met as equals
with leaders from all
regions of the world.
In the 2005 legislative
elections, she was
elected to the Senate in
representation of the
province of Buenos
Aires, the country’s
most important, with
nearly 40 percent of the
vote.
By then, the popular
Kirchner was in the
middle of his term, and
she appeared to be
unstoppable. Her name
began to be bandied
about as her husband’s
successor, if he decided
not to run for
reelection. Finally, it
was announced in July
that she would be the
candidate for the ruling
faction of the
Justicialista Party, and
no one was surprised. It
was her turn. |
