Cristina Kirchner, puppet of her raging husband
Life in the pink palace of Argentina's ruling couple is no bed of roses, says a new biography of President Cristina Kirchner. It portrays her as the puppet of an authoritarian husband who once punched her in the face for defying his will.
The book, by prominent journalist Sylvina Walger, describes Nestor Kirchner, the former leader, as a “parallel president” who takes all the important decisions for Cristina and flies into a fury if she disobeys him.
A claim that she needed medical treatment after he allegedly struck her in 2008 has thrown the spotlight on a “riotous matrimonial relationship” based less on love than a plan for them to hold power for eight more years.
“All that's left of that marriage is the question of how to divide the spoils of power,” says Walger.
The book has provoked outrage among Kirchner supporters, who dismiss it as a crude, politically motivated smear.
It has probably not helped the mood in the Casa Rosada, the presidential palace in Buenos Aires. After two years of dwindling public support, the Kirchners and their Front for Victory coalition have recently enjoyed a bump in the polls as Latin America's third-largest economy roars back to life.
Walger's unflattering portrayal of Nestor Kirchner will thrill political opponents, who regard with horror his prospect of winning a second term in next year's elections. He is described in the book as “mean, petty, vengeful and envious”.
Despite the couple's claims to have a relationship based on “equality”, Walger insists Nestor “is the one wearing the trousers”.
“The real president is Nestor. He is the one taking all the important decisions. She does everything he tells her.”
The book, From Legislator to Fashion President, presents Cristina - like her husband, a leading light of the Peronist movement - as being obsessed with her appearance, changing her outfit three times a day.
Sometimes described as “the new Evita” after Eva Peron, the popular second wife of the former president Juan Peron, Cristina has a particular weakness for jewellery and expensive lizard skin or crocodile handbags by French fashion designers.
One reason she goes on so many foreign trips, says Walger, is to scout for mansions for the couple's eventual retirement.
Breaking a taboo of silence about the private lives of the Kirchners, Walger claims both Cristina, 57, and Nestor, 60, have had affairs.
He was a little-known Patagonian governor when he won the presidency in 2003. Thanks to booming Chinese demand for Argentine soy beans, the country soon began to recover from the economic collapse it suffered in 2001.
The Kirchners have certainly prospered. The 600% growth in their personal fortune, to almost 12 million USD, since 2003 has prompted allegations of corruption since their combined annual income as President and former president is only $157,000. Opposition leaders have accused the couple of using inside information to engage in currency speculation.
The Kirchners own a luxury hotel and other businesses in the Patagonian resort of El Calafate and, according to Walger, a former Peronist militant, they also have 19 houses and 14 flats.
Nestor is widely believed to have engineered the presidential candidacy of his wife, a former senator for Buenos Aires province, in 2007 on the understanding that she would keep the seat warm for his return next year.
But a few months after she took office, she became embroiled in a bruising conflict with farmers over a plan to raise taxes on soya exports. When Vice-President Julio Cobos cast a deciding vote against the government bill on July 17, 2008, Nestor urged his wife to resign, writes Walger. She refused.
“The parallel president then dealt her a sonorous punch. It was a serious blow and she had to be taken away to be treated by doctors.” The Kirchners have not denied Walger's account, but if true they would be enough to raise doubts about whether the country can go on calling Nestor “its first gentleman”. (The Sunday Times)
- The article written by Matthew Campbell was first published in the Sunday Times and later reproduced in several other newspapers.
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39 comments Feed
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The Kirchners could've done better, yes, no argument. But lets compare them to Menem, him.. I swear to Christ, there is no limit to how cruel I would be to him, he DESTROYED Argentina to an extent few people realize.
There's always a flip-side to every coin.
Quote:
“Kelley's work has faced legal challenges. Her book “the Royals” was banned in Britain because it contained sensational assertions that Kelley would have reportedly been unable to defend in court, and the British media also found Kelley’s claims too potentially libelous to report on.”
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitty_Kelley#British_Royal_family_and_the_Bush_family
Double standards anybody???
Twinky should be right on top of this. He hates corruption.
God bless the impartial media.
2011 is round the corner and we must know that this is the begining, in Argentina people like Walger don't forgive CFK for being woman, peronist and a succesfull president.
Such an unfortunate note, originated in the Sunday Times, belongs more in one of those silly brittish gossip tabloids read by lazy people than in a news agency that purports to offer credible and serious journalism.
BTW what ever happened to the 800K cash “election” contribution from Uncle Hugo?
On the other hand, this old idiot lady (sivina walger), said a couple of monthes ego that the kirchner are worst than militar dictatorship, this shows the level of resentment and ignorance that there is in the mind of this imbecill lady, we all knoew perfectly that it's absolutly false, even those who reject strongly the kirchner.
MercoPress journalism is like Clarin or La Nación here, or FOX in USA where only blind idiots could believe them like Nicholas.
Truth hurts, doesn't it? Not only your corrupt president(s) and government, but also your stupidity in supporting them. Please note that the Kirchners haven't denied anything said.
(12) Jose. How unfortunate, for you, that you didn't live ten, twenty, fifty thousand years ago when things were simpler. For now, for the 21st century, this is an important part of journalism. Digging up the dirt on corrupt politicians and telling the world about it. Just think. Without Matthew Campbell and the Sunday Times we might never have known about Sylvina Walger's book. And the same goes for MercoPress who have made it available to the world. Well done to all involved in bringing this to the attention of the world!
Also, comparing what the PRI did in Mexico for decades to what it's happening in Argentina with Clarin or La Nacion is absurd: the PRI was a one party regime with decades suppressing freedom of speech by violent means, the author of the FT article ignores how many newspaper printing shops were violently destroyed by the PRI thugs and how many journalists were incarcerated.
Televisions, radio stations and newspapers were either silenced forever or forced to side with the regime. The regime favoured those who obeyed with all kinds of juicy official propaganda contracts and fiscal “inventives” . In the end, those few who sided with the regime became rich media corporations, read monopolies, while those newspapers and radio stations who chose to speak out ended up mostly broken.
It wasn't fair either, and many in Mexico would like to see some justice brought into the matter too the way in the this is being done in Argentina: bring to justice those media tycoons who got rich and enjoyed the priviledges, favour and endless budget of the regime, they manipulated national information, twisted the news and conciously misrepresented facts to the people to help the regime stay in power, while the regime helped them become de facto monopolies.
So I have mixed feelings about what is happening in Argentina now, and though I do believe that what Ms. Kirchner is doing with La Nacion and El Clarin may come at a cost, I don't buy the perception that the Argentinian government is suppressing freedom of speech here either. My hope is that when it is all over, the media industry can be rid of corrupted media monopolies and that this will enable a new more diversely oriented and richer composition of this important industry that is supposed to convey public opinion.
Moron, as suall you swallow everything you read in the international press, however at the same time you ignore many issues, like i said in my comment 17, i dont deny that the kirchner are corrupt and arrogant, but it does not mean that i am going to believe what any idiot says, who has bad baith, and does not have not even one line of objetivity.
Do you know who is silvina walger, do you you know what's her politic posture?, every posture are respectable, but you have to know where is standing the person who criticises a government, and you have to compare what she says, with the reality.
On the other hand, all the time the government rejects what diferent journalist say about it, regarding what silvina walger says, it's nothing new, she only hates the kirchner, and does not recognize not even one achievements to their administrations.
If cristina is bipolar, or whatever, is irrelevant, thats' her personal problem, it does mean that she can't make progress for the country, about their k's patrimony, they were supersed last year, in a cause for illicit enrrichment, i can't say if they are inocent or not, because i am not a public counter, but they are suspected of diferent corruption cases, this s why i wont vote them next year, so, what silvina walger says, is not new.
Great job MercoPress, top notch journalism
Spanish, Italian and Portuguese immigrants should stop stealing land and walk home.
Of course that my comment was ironic, do you think that moron deserves to be called as an intellectuall?.
And gassy is, after all, just a dopy dago who can't stand to live in his own country but has to go and sponge off Canada.
Both useless sub-human “life-forms”. Somewhat on a par with pigs but not as useful.
I dont know who you refer to when you mention about a dopy dago who can't stand to live in hes own country, in my case i live in my country, in buenos aires, on the other hand, if you stop being so moron, you could realise that my comment was absolutly ironic, since a couple of monthes ago, i can see that you just can make me laugh for a while, dont forget to take the red pilder, or you''ll keep on being the same histerical bitch as usuall, cheers my dear harrier.
You don't have to read it. You don't have to post.
I don't know if you have noticed but our country has territory in the south atlantic :)
You don't need a nuclear weapons defence program. Britain didn't need a nuclear weapon to beat the shite out of you in 1982 and probably won't need one to do it again for the next 50-100 years.
The Falkland Islanders have every right to their country, their land, their territory.
If you don't like it, take it to the ICJ. Or is it that you remember you've already been offered that 3 times and refused? Is it that you know that if it went to the ICJ, Argentina would lose? Is that why you approach every forum EXCEPT the one that can make a definitive judgement?
In the meantime, feel free to carry on spewing out your bile, your bigotry, your hatred, if it makes you feel better. It's quite funny. We know Argentina can't DO anything.
Even its current attempts to interfere with the Falkland Islands development aren't achieving anything.
Round about now your supporter, Brazil, is conducting joint exercises with the Royal Navy and Royal Marines.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_Wars
For possibly the first time in your short insignificant history someone told you that you couldn't have what you wanted.
Result? Kiddie tantrums together with childish lies.
Then you thought you'd tried the sneak approach and got spanked.
Result? You're now trying the “Look how big my gang is” approach.
Wrong people to try it on. Unless the FALKLAND ISLANDERS make a different choice, things will stay the same for the next thousand years or more.
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