PROFILE: Argentina's first lady Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner favorite to become President

Record ID: 449095

  • Title: PROFILE: Argentina's first lady Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner favorite to become President
  • Date: 30th October 2007
  • Summary: SUPPORTERS WITH BANNERS FERNANDEZ SUPPORTER WITH TATTOO OF EVITA
  • Embargoed: 14th November 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Domestic Politics,People
  • Reuters ID: LVAAP1PT0V5JHUQB7E3B2BTW0UAC
  • Story Text: Has a feminine touch propelled Argentina's first lady Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner to the presidency? The showy suits, the heavy makeup, the spike heels.
    Argentina's first lady and presidential front-runner has made headlines by flaunting her femininity throughout her election campaign.
    Long-time senator Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner will become Argentina's first elected female president if she wins a vote on Sunday (October 28), as polls predict.
    Although she is a powerful speaker and has served in Argentina's upper and lower houses, it is her glamourous look - with bright red berets, old-fashioned fans and hair extensions - that has inspired everything from cartoon jabs and snide remarks to unabashed admiration.
    "I love her look. Because she looks after herself," said one Argentine woman, Angeles.
    "I think her look is over-the-top for a woman that is going to dedicate herself to politics. I think that she should have a different look, like a woman of the state. Maybe her priorities should be in other things," said another Argentine woman, Susanna Pereira.
    "It gives me the sensation that dressing like that embarrasses people, people that don't like so much flash," said one Argentine man, Omar Jerez.
    "The queen of botox" is how one of Fernandez's main rivals in the presidential race, former lawmaker Elisa Carrio, referred to her this month. Many people speculate that Fernandez uses cosmetic touch-ups to look younger.
    But cosmetic surgery, rampant among entertainers, is not necessarily frowned up in Argentina. And older women can still be sexy in this country, which prides itself on having the most beautiful women in the world.
    At a campaign event last month, Fernandez addressed her husband during a speech: "Mr. President, you say people criticize you for wearing mocassins and double-breasted suits. Those same people criticize me for dressing up too much. Exactly for the opposite of what they are criticizing you for. In reality, they aren't bothered by your moccasins or your suit, or my makeup or my hair. They are bothered because we've threatened their interests in Argentina."
    Some of Fernandez's defenders say she gets superficial scrutiny because of machismo, or sexism.
    But her female credentials have also given her a boost in country that still fondly remembers "Evita" - the wife of former President Juan Peron who is famous for helping women get the vote, winning labor benefits for miners and meat packers, and founding hospitals and orphanages.
    Fernandez has won the bulk of her support in poor and working class neighborhoods that are strongly Peronist and where the cult of Evita persists even though few people under the age of 65 can actually remember her.
    "I reiterate once again my unbreakable commitment of always, always from my bench as senator, from my bench as a congress member and all of the places I have worked as a politician, I have defended the interests of the workers," Fernandez said to a roaring crowd recently in the working-class district of La Matanza.
    Many of Cristina's supporters are thrilled that a woman is now leading the Peronist movement and hope she will carry on Evita's work. Others say no one can replace their golden woman.
    "She reminds me a lot of Evita. Her power, her conviction, the way she uses words. She's so smart. I admire her," said 72-year-old Norma.
    "She has changed a lot. But Evita was the only one. For a Peronist Evita was the only one," said another voter, Beatriz Rojas.
    But Fernandez is careful to limit references to Evita. The former first lady's nationalist speeches and emotional appeals to workers -- her "shirtless ones" -- are a turnoff for the middle class Argentines that Fernandez has struggled to win over.
    Yet she has spoken fondly of the first time she found out who Evita was, in a book her grandfather kept hidden in the 1960s when Juan Peron was in exile.
    At a homage to Eva Peron on the 55th anniversary of her death in July, Fernandez said she says she likes to remember her not as a fairy godmother who founded hospitals and gave gifts to children, but as a militant who fought for social justice.
    "The Evita of my youth stood with her hand raised before the microphone, flamboyant, announcing battles of the people and for the people.
    Evita should not just be remembered in speeches, but in how we govern. That is how one should keep her mind, honor and remember her," Fernandez said beneath a giant image of Evita and Peron.
    According to Cristina Alvarez - Evita's great-niece and president ad honorem of the Evita Institute - Evita would be very proud that Argentina's first elected woman president will be a Peronist.
    But while Evita did not study beyond elementary school, and worked as an actress and in radio, Fernandez has dedicated her life to politics, from her days as a student activist to years in the Senate.
    "Cristina is an intellectual from an academic background. She had a very important theoretical education. Eva had intuition and big heart. She only went to primary school, but nevertheless this was enough for the work that she did. They are two women that are big personalities, with great conviction. They are women that are not easy to put down in a fight, whether you are a man or a woman. And they are both married to men that are protagonists in Argentine history," Alvarez said.
    Evita was always careful to take a back seat to Juan Peron, specifically turning down a call from unions for her to run for office.
    In contrast, Fernandez has had a long political partnership with her husband President Nestor Kirchner. He is popular and would almost certainly have won re-election but instead stood aside for his wife to take over.
    Their strong partnership has drawn further comparisons with United States power couple Bill and Hillary Clinton.
    Both Fernandez and Clinton met their husbands in law school, have been first ladies and senators, and now aim to be their country's first elected female president.
    And just as Hillary Clinton took an active role in policy when her husband was first elected as the U.S. president, Fernandez has been Kirchner's top advisor since he took office in 2003.
    Fernandez says she respects Hillary Clinton, but notes that her own Senate career began long before her husband was president.
    The Kirchners are also leftists and their support among the poor contrasts to the Clintons more center-field, middle-class appeal.
    And Fernandez is steps ahead in her quest to lead her country. While Hillary Clinton is still fighting just for her party's nomination, Fernandez was anointed presidential candidate by her husband without a primary and is a safe bet to win.
    In fact, she appears so confident she will win she has spent the better half of recent months touring the globe to hobnob with foreign leaders and acting like she is already representing her country.
    Flashier than France's elegant former presidential candidate Segolene Royal and more traditionally feminine that German Chancellor Angela Merkel or Chilean President Michelle Bachelet - Fernandez is buoyed by a more than 25 percentage point lead in the polls.
    So whether you like her looks her not, she is the runaway favorite for the Oct. 28 vote.
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