Cristina Kirchner is a traditional policy and one of the most important names in the peronism at Argentina in the last decades. She began her trajectory in Argentine politics in the 1980s, being elected provincial deputy, national deputy and senator for different terms. She rose in politics with her husband, Néstor Kirchner.
She was First Lady of Argentina between 2003 and 2007, during her husband's presidency. He was elected president in 2007 and re-elected for a second term in 2011. Her government was marked by policies to combat poverty and the defense of human rights, although she suffered several allegations of corruption. She was the victim of an attack in 2022 and survived because the weapon failed.
Know more:Eva Perón — emblematic figure in Argentina's political history
Topics of this article
- 1 - Birth and youth of Cristina Kirchner
- 2 - Cristina Kirchner's academic training
- 3 - Professional and political career of Cristina Kirchner
- 4 - Cristina Kirchner in the presidency
- 5 - Attack against Cristina Kirchner
Birth and youth of Cristina Kirchner
Cristina Elisabet Fernández Kirchner was born in the city of La Plata, located in the province of Buenos Aires, on February 19, 1953. She is the daughter of Eduardo Fernández and Ofelia Esther Wilhelm, her father working as a bus driver and her mother working in a local union.
She had access to education in local schools and grew up in a politically divided family environment, because her father was an anti-Peronist, but her mother was a convinced Peronist. Peronism can be understood as the political proposal of Juan Domingo Perón, Argentine president between 1946 and 1955.
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Among the proposals of Peronism are the approximation of the government with the unions, nationalism economic, authoritarianism, fear of socialism, implementation of measures to promote income distribution, extensive use of political propaganda and promotion of the image of the ruler as a benefactor.
Cristina Kirchner's academic background
Throughout his youth, Cristina took on political positions that brought her closer to Peronism and it was during her university studies that she became a de facto advocate of this ideology in Argentine. In September 1972, she began studying Psychology at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
She stayed on that course for a year and then decided to enroll in law school. It was at that moment that she became a Peronist, defender of progressive ideals and supporter of an anti-imperialist discourse. It was also during her time at university that she met Néstor Kichner, with whomm got married in 1975.
She actually became Cristina Kirchner after her marriage to Néstor. Her approach to Peronism was, at first, through the Juventud Universitaria Peronista, but she also had a very strong ideological affinity with the Movimiento Peronista Montonero, whose members are known as montoneros. She, however, did not agree with the radicalization of the Montoneros and their involvement in the armed struggle, as she believed that the policy it was the ideal way to oppose the dictatorship of the military in his country.
Due to political repression from 1976, when the military dictatorship returned to Argentina under the hands of Jorge Rafael Videla, Néstor and Cristina decidewillm abandon La Plata and movefrogm to Rio Gallegos, hometown of Néstor. They believed that they would be safe in Río Gallegos, because they imagined that military repression would be less there.
The Argentine dictatorship unleashed great violence against the Peronists and other opponents of the regime, leading to the murder and disappearance of the bodies of thousands of Argentine citizens. Cristina Kirchner was only able to complete her course because she completed it at a distance, thus obtaining the title of Bachelor of Laws in 1979.
Know also:Latin American dictatorships
Professional and political career of Cristina Kirchner
The city of Río Gallegos is part of the province of Santa Cruz, located in Patagonia. There, the Kirchners developed their professional and political careers. in partnership. First, they set up a law firm, working together from 1979 onwards. From the 1980s, Néstor began his political career, and Cristina would share that space with him.
From November 1981, Néstor Kirchner became part of a political group called Ateneo Teniente General Juan Domingo Perón, starting his political career. Some time later, Néstor and Cristina joined the Frente para la Victoria Santacruceña and together they won positions in Argentine politics. Néstor managed to be elected mayor of Río Gallegos, in 1987, while Cristina Kirchner began her political career by being elected as deputy for the province of Santa Cruz, in 1989.
In 1991, Néstor was elected governor of the province of Santa Cruz, and Cristina was directly involved in her husband's campaign. In 1994, Cristina and Néstor Kirchner were elected to a position in the Constituent Assembly that reformed Argentina's Constitution in 1994. Next year, Cristina managed to get elected to the position of senator by the province of Santa Cruz.
In her role as senator, Cristina Kirchner became known as a representative of Peronism, opposing neoliberal policies — which were in evidence throughout the South America in the period. In fact, her election to the Argentine Senate was given by the Justicialist Party, founded by Perón in the 1940s.
In 1997, she resigned as senator and ran for deputy (a Nacional level) in the same year, being elected to the position. In 2001, she was elected again to the Argentine Senate, once again representing Santa Cruz. She held the position until 2005 and was re-elected to the Senate, but this time she ran for the province of Buenos Aires.
Cristina Kirchner in the presidency
In 2007, Cristina decided to run for the presidency of Argentina, and the her goal was to succeed her husband, Néstor, president of Argentina, between the years 2003 and 2007. During this period, Cristina also held the symbolic position of First Lady of Argentina. Cristina Kirchner was an influential politician, with progressive positions and the wife of the country's last president.
The political platform she defended, with proposals in defense of human rights and the promotion of the fight against social inequality caused her to be elected with more than 45% of the votes in a single round. O her government was marked by great economic growth and distribution measures in income, whose purpose was to reduce social inequality.
Cristina Kirchner's government maintained good relations with South American nations, including the Brazil during the governments of Lula and Dilma Rousseff. There were many criticisms of Cristina Kirchner for her alleged involvement with schemes corruption, and many investigations extend for years.
She was also criticized for constantly clashing with the press with the aim of silence criticism of her government and was also accused of seeking to disrupt investigations against you. Still, she ended her term with approval ratings in excess of 50%. In 2011, she was re-elected with over 54% of the vote. She sought to nominate a successor, but he was defeated in the 2015 election by Mauricio Macri.
Attack against Cristina Kirchner
After leaving the presidency, Cristina Kirchner remained in Argentine politics, being elected senator, again for the province of Buenos Aires. In 2019, she ran for vice-president alongside Alberto Fernández, and both defeated President Mauricio Macri, who was seeking his re-election.
Recently, the political debate in Argentina has increased its temperature due to investigations against Cristina Kirchner and prosecutors' request that she be sentenced to 12 years in prison and her ban on holding office politicians. The prosecutors' request was due to accusations of embezzlement of public money during her presidency.
The debate between kirchneristas and opponents became quite heated in Argentina, and this political radicalization led to an incident on September 1, 2022. Cristina Kirchner suffered an assassination attempt on her doorstep, in Buenos Aires, but survived because the gun used to shoot her failed.
The perpetrator of the crime was a Brazilian named Fernando Sabag Montiel, who has lived in Argentina since the early 1990s. He, who is the son of a Chilean father and an Argentine mother, was arrested by the Argentine police.
Image credits:
[1] ymphotos It is Shutterstock
By Daniel Neves Silva
History teacher
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