Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
Cristina Elisabet Fernández de Kirchner ( born February 19, 1953 in Ringuelet at La Plata in the province of Buenos Aires ) is an Argentine politician of the Peronist Party and current President of Argentina. She is the widow of its direct predecessor, Néstor Kirchner.
Kirchner was elected President on 28 October 2007 and re-elected in 2011. It is named after Isabel Martínez de Perón, the second female head of state of their country.
Life
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is the daughter of Eduardo Fernández and Ofelia Wilhelm and thus originates from paternal and maternal Spanish of Volga German immigrants from.
The first two years of her secondary education she graduated from the former Commercial School San Martín (now middle school 31) of La Plata, the last three at the Catholic girls' school Colegio Nuestra Señora de la Misericordia in the same city.
Then Cristina Fernández studied law at the University of La Plata. There she met Néstor Kirchner, whom she married on March 9, 1975. She took his surname Kirchner, which corresponded to the then Argentine law. While the Argentine military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983, the Kirchner went to Río Gallegos their activity as lawyers. They have two children: Máximo ( b. 1977 ) and Florencia (* 1990).
In December 2011, the suspicion of thyroid cancer was said on Kirchner. After a removal of the thyroid and a more detailed examination in January 2012 turned out that it was not cancer.
Political career
Kirchner was from the 1970s, a member of the Peronist Party. After her husband Néstor had won the 1987 election for mayor of Río Gallegos, was also politically active. In the years 1989 and 1993 she reached the the regional parliament of Santa Cruz. In 1995, she represented Santa Cruz in the House of Representatives, and two years later she was elected to the Senate, the upper house of the Argentine Congress. In 2001, she successfully defended her Senate seat.
2003 Kirchner was instrumental in the successful candidacy of her husband for the office of President. Also known as Primera Dama Argentina she remained politically active. In 2005 she was elected senator for the province of Buenos Aires. She sat down with a clear lead against Hilda González de Duhalde, the wife of former President Eduardo Duhalde by.
After Néstor Kirchner had declared not to run for a second term as president, a candidacy of his wife for the presidential elections on 28 October 2007 were expected; July 19, 2007 Cristina Kirchner was this officially announced before party friends in La Plata. It announced a paradigm shift and the " regaining our self-esteem, work and jobs " on. Even before the election campaign indicated in surveys that they could win the first ballot. Immediately before the election a clear victory with a clear lead of up to 32 percentage points to the most promising candidate Elisa Carrio opposition was predicted (from ARI).
Election as President
Already the first ballot on 28 October 2007, Kirchner clearly decide with 45.3 % for itself. A runoff election was invalid because the distance to the second-placed Elisa Carrio (ARI ) was about 20%. According to Argentine law, a candidate is deemed the winner in the first round when it reaches at least 45 % or more than 40 % at a distance of more than 10 percentage points above the next best.
The election result was geographically uneven. So Kirchner reached in the north of the country as well as in Patagonia partially voting shares of more than 70%; Peak values of 95 %, there was in some districts of the provinces of Salta and Santiago del Estero. In the three largest cities of Buenos Aires, Cordoba - where she only finished in third place - and Rosario she lost the election, however. Strong deviation was the result also in the province of San Luis; there was won by the opposition candidate Alberto Rodríguez Saa, acting governor of the province and brother of the short-term President in 2001, Adolfo Rodriguez Saa, with more than 70 % of the vote; in the total count but was only fourth.
In her first speech after the election, Kirchner announced his intention to pursue the chosen direction of her husband.
First term in office (2007-2011)
After taking office on 10 December 2007, Kirchner introduced the policies of her husband continued, particularly in economic policy, in which an import substitution industrialization supported by initially moderate protectionist measures was sought, and in the human rights policy in which they are working up the crimes of the military dictatorship of the process of the National reorganization (1976-1983) further drove forward.
Her first notable official act was the announcement of an energy plan to combat the supply gaps, in particular with electricity and natural gas. The package included not only the construction of power plants and the short-term re- introduction of summer time from the end of 2007, but was only for three months and was then abolished. Furthermore, a Ministry of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation was founded.
Crisis between the government and agricultural associations (March to July 2008)
Already in the first half of 2008 there was a government crisis after Economy Minister Martín Lousteau had announced ( with a decree comparable) on March 11, against the background of rising world market prices for soybeans and products made from sunflower increasing export taxes for these products by Ministerial. The so-called Resolución 125 saw further provides that the export tax rates for many agricultural products would be linked to the world market price - ie increased world market prices, so higher tax rates (so-called retenciones móviles ) would be automatically created. The representative bodies of the agricultural sector then called on to indefinite strikes and other protest actions such as road blockades. Kirchner defended on March 25, the export tax increases and publicly announced that it would not result in " blackmail" by the agricultural associations episode.
On March 31, the government made the face of growing discontent in the population because of the side effects of the strike, in particular by a strongly reduced food supply and thus partly strong price increases, tax increases for small and medium-sized enterprises reversed by these additional burdens were reimbursed retrospectively. This had initially relaxing and led to a new round of negotiations between the government and agricultural associations, but in which no agreement could be reached. On April 25, Minister of Economic Affairs Lousteau resigned as a result of the crisis. From 24 May, the organizations the strike resumed.
On 17 June, the government submitted a draft law to legitimize the tax increase democratic. In Congress, some reforms were also incorporated, which should favor mainly small producers. On July 6, the House of Representatives adopted the draft with a small majority, so he was passed on to the Senate. In the vote on July 17, there was a stalemate ( 36 votes each ), so that the Senate President and Vice President of the Kirchner government, Julio Cobos himself decided to vote no and so to fail the design.
A day later, the Kirchner government set the resolution from 125 and thus took the export taxes back to the level of 2007. The agricultural unions thereupon declared the conflict to be over, although some representatives calling on the government to reform the benefit of small and medium-sized producers.
Electoral defeat, new social programs and recovery (2009/2010)
During the crisis, the agricultural associations Kirchner 's popularity fell sharply, in some surveys 2008 and early 2009 received its policy less than 25 % approval. In economic policy, it came before the next election in 2009 to some great nationalizations, including the resulting in pension reform Carlos Menem's private pension funds ( AFJP ) in December 2008, the airline Aerolíneas Argentinas ( early 2009 ) and the aircraft manufacturer Fábrica Militar de Aviones ( March 2009).
In the parliamentary elections of 2009 a part of the Peronist entered an alliance with the Conservative party Propuesta Republicana under the symbol Unión -Pro against the run of Kirchner Alliance Frente para la Victoria (FPV ) and won the most important province of Buenos Aires as well as in the city of Buenos Aires although in the province of her husband Néstor Kirchner came into office as the leading candidate for the House of Representatives. Nationally, more successful was the Acuerdo Civico y Social ( ACyS ), a coalition of ARI, UCR and Socialist Party. With 31.2% was according to an analysis of the newspaper Clarín FPV with its allies across the country, although most powerful force, but only 0.5 % was before ACyS (30.7% ), was third Unión Pro with 18.7%. Because of the high losses, the FPV lost its absolute majority in the House.
In October 2009, the Kirchner government introduced an allowance for the needy one ( Asignación Universal por Hijo ), which employed to unemployed and the informal sector is paid parents of children and adolescents under 18 years if they can prove that the child can be vaccinated regularly and kindergarten and school. Before the reform, only formal workers had obtained at low and medium-paid workers an allowance. This social program is based on a draft law of Elisa Carrio from the year 1997. In most studies, the child support will have a positive effect on poverty reduction and compliance with compulsory school attendance awarded (for example, in a study of the research institute CONICET 2010), although there are a few critical voices that doubted the success of the program or to other factors traced.
Furthermore, the television broadcast of the football games of the first Argentine league branded Fútbol para todos (soccer for all ) was bought at the initiative of the government in August 2009 by the state broadcaster Canal 7.
Due to the high inflation, which was constant over 7% a year, even after the among others doubted by the IMF official figures from the INDEC ( private estimates come since 2011 nearly constant at about twice the INDEC estimates), it came to rising production costs in the economy of the country. In order to keep the trade balance positively related to the initiative of the Secretary Guillermo Moreno Kirchner trade were imposed protectionist measures in trade policy, in particular in the form of new bureaucratic hurdles in the issuance of import licenses ( so-called non - automatic licenses). This policy brought Argentina over the years 2010 and 2011 diplomatic conflicts with Brazil, which were first settled, however.
Controversy led the media policy of the government of Kirchner. The Broadcasting Law was revised in October 2009 with the Act on Services in Audiovisual Communication, which replaced a law from the period of military dictatorship. The reform had been requested by many interest groups and social movements for some time, since the old decree of the government had conceded strong influence on the allocation of broadcasting licenses and had ruled for example, associations and other non-commercial legal persons in general from the market. In the new media law is a part of the radio-electric spectrum for non-commercial providers have been reserved and placed the highest odds, for the market share of individual media companies in television and radio market and minimum quotas for Argentine and local productions. Critics from the ranks of the opposition complained that the law is especially tailored to reduce the market power of the Clarín Group, whose media represented mainly critical of the government positions. The law, however, was positively evaluated, among other things by Reporters Without Borders, the panelist Argentina in 2009 press freedom index at several places up to 47th place.
On 27 October 2010, died Kirchner's husband, Néstor Kirchner, of a heart attack. As a result, their popularity again grew rapidly, so that it was again as the most promising candidate ahead of the upcoming presidential election in 2011. However, Kirchner made the decision to run for election, to June 22, 2011 is open. Kirchner's decision to wear black mourning clothes in virtually all public appearances until 2012 called, international forth a lot of media interest.
Shortly before the end of the first term, Kirchner, shortly after the presidential election, foreign exchange controls were introduced in order to prevent the 2011 is ascended capital flight to the dollar and other currencies by the government.
Second term ( since 2011 )
→ Main article: presidential and parliamentary elections in Argentina 2011
On October 23, 2011 Kirchner was confirmed as the first female head of state in Latin America, with a majority of 53 % of the vote in office. On December 10, 2011, they made their oath of office for the second term. Both the exchange controls and the protectionist measures against imports have been tightened in the following months, what Argentina brought sharp criticism from the World Trade Organization in March 2012.
In February 2012 there was a diplomatic dispute with the United Kingdom to the question of the Falkland Islands. After the British military had sent a destroyer to the islands, Kirchner announced a lawsuit against the " militarization " of the South Atlantic to the United Nations. As a result, Argentina refused in several cases, the berthing of vessels flying the flag of the Falkland Islands in Argentine ports, other Latin American governments followed the action.
In April 2012, Kirchner introduced a bill in Congress to the oil exploration company YPF, whose majority shareholder is the Spanish company Repsol was teilzuverstaatlichen since 1998. This step provoked protests and the announcement of trade sanctions from the Spanish government. The nationalization was early May 2012 passed by Congress by a large majority and subsequently implemented.
A growing resentment of large parts of the population over corruption scandals, a perceived as increased crime, a new increase in unemployment and criticism react with incomprehension government Kirchner was discharged in September and again in November 2012 in nationwide mass demonstrations with a total of several hundred thousand participants.
In the course of surveillance and espionage in 2013 Kirchner criticized the United States strong. After the forced landing of the Bolivian president, they demanded a convening of an extraordinary UNASUR meeting to protest against the overflight ban on the Bolivian presidential aircraft through several European countries.
In October and November 2013 Kirchner took six weeks for health reasons - because of a hematoma in the cranial region - leave; during this time was Vice President Amado Boudou held the office force. In the Parliament mid-term elections in October 2013 suffered Kirchner's Frente para la Victoria party alliance and its allies defeat a high, mainly due to the elimination of the Frente Renovador, a part of the Partido Justicialista under the leadership of Sergio Massa.
Shortly after the election defeat and before the start of the new legislature, the government was reshuffled: Jorge Capitanich became the new Head of Cabinet, the former Secretary of State Axel Kicillof took over the important office of the Minister of Economy. The long-term trade - Secretary Guillermo Moreno, who was the first purchase of foreign exchange and import restrictions, among others, and was behind the alleged manipulation of the price index of the INDEC, handed in his resignation.
After the central bank had approved a devaluation of the Argentine peso by more than 18 percent to 25 January 2014, the Kirchner government loosened on 27 January, the currency restrictions and allowed individuals under certain conditions again the purchase of foreign currency as an investment.
Allegations of corruption
In 2009 it was announced that the private assets of de Kirchner and her husband Néstor Kirchner last year had increased by 158 % and since the appointment of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner's direct predecessor, Néstor Kirchner to 572 %. This did not agree with the claims that were made by Kirchner in the emergence first allegations of corruption. In the course of investigations of the anti -corruption agency in particular the development of the Kirchner assets was studied in the first year after the beginning of the presidency of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. The closing of the investigation against Kirchner in Argentina is considered to be highly controversial.
Néstor Kirchner's former secretary Miriam Quiroga stated in an interview in May 2013 that Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was involved in a corrupt network of the former president, the operation inter alia money laundering and illegal arms trade. The friend of the family Kirchner Contractors Lázaro Báez was accused of being one of the Kirchner straw men, using more than 50 companies over 55 million euros generated by corruption and excessive bills to the government have laundered through Swiss banks should.
Film
In Oliver Stone's documentary South of the Border from the year 2009, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is interviewed as well as other Latin American leaders.