ARGENTINA: Argentina's first lady Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner launches her election campaign for presidency

Record ID: 345774

  • Title: ARGENTINA: Argentina's first lady Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner launches her election campaign for presidency
  • Date: 20th July 2007
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF FERNANDEZ GREETING SUPPORTERS AS CONFETTI FALLS
  • Embargoed: 4th August 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Argentina
  • Country: Argentina
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA7S60T8VXDPE93Q5K74OXOHI85
  • Story Text: Argentina's first lady launched her campaign to become the country's first elected female president on Thursday (July 19), pledging to deepen the economic course carved out by President Nestor Kirchner.
    Polls show Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, a powerful senator and her husband's top adviser, is the overwhelming favourite to win an October presidential election.
    However, a series of corruption scandals and an energy crisis dogging her husband could affect her campaign.
    Fernandez unveiled her presidential bid in the provincial capital of La Plata more than two weeks after Kirchner said he would not seek re-election and instead back his wife as the ruling Peronist Party's candidate.
    Kirchner, who remains highly popular after four years in office, describes his wife's candidacy as a chance for change and new ideas.
    Addressing a packed theatre of supporters, Fernandez heralded her husband's economic policies. Many Argentines credit Kirchner with engineering the country's turnaround from a 2001-2002 economic crisis.
    "It is necessary that this model, of the Argentina of the future, is also institutionalized. The presidential elections could become a Russian roulette for all Argentines. Where is one candidate wins we go over there [indicating with hand] and if another one wins we go for the other direction. This will not be tolerated neither by the country, nor society nor history," she said.
    Fernandez rolled out her campaign as Kirchner suffered a string of recent political setbacks, including the resignation this week of his economy minister, who was under investigation after a bag of cash was found stashed in her office bathroom.
    That followed several probes and resignations by mid-level officials linked to alleged corruption in a multimillion-dollar government pipeline project.
    Energy shortages have forced the government to ration supplies to businesses, and two losses in recent provincial and municipal elections have also hit the government.
    However Fernandez said she is worried the Argentine people will miss her husband.
    "And you Mr. President, I say to you: Argentines will not forget you. The only thing that I hope - which permits me something of an exercise in personal egoism, and we are all a little egotistical - I hope that they will not miss you too much. Thank you very much," she said.
    A 54-year-old lawyer who has served in both houses of Congress, Fernandez is among several wives of Peronist presidents to enter politics, beginning with Eva Peron, the wife of former Argentine strongman Juan Peron.
    If she wins, Fernandez would become the first woman elected president of Argentina but not the first to run the country.
    Isabel Peron, the leader's third wife, took over as president after he died in 1974 but was ousted by a military coup two years later.
    Public opinion surveys show Fernandez is likely to win in a first round of balloting with around 45 percent support. She holds a 30 percentage point lead over her closest rival.
    Fernandez travels to Spain this weekend to promote her candidacy abroad.
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