MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Kirchner dreams of a “more plural Argentina”

Argentine President Nestor Kirchner drew an estimated 350,000 supporters to Buenos Aires Plaza de Mayo for a rally to highlight the economy's recovery and his three years in office.

Kirchner's administration bussed many of the supporters in from as far away as Tierra del Fuego in the southern tip of South America to Jujuy, in Argentina's northern border with Bolivia. The rally also commemorated the anniversary of the Argentine uprising against the Spaniards in May 25, 1810.

"I dream with a more plural Argentina", said President Kirchner inviting all good willed Argentines to join the struggle to defend the fatherland because "we believe in the Argentina where happiness can be restored; we believe in the Argentina of joyful times''.

The rally, held in front of the presidential palace Casa Rosada at the Plaza de Mayo, cost an estimated 1.6 million US dollars according to La Nacion newspaper, and was attended by governors, lawmakers, opposition politicians as well as actors, singers and human rights activists.

Political analysts view the huge gathering, and organization behind it, as the launching of President Kirchner's bid for re-election.

''The only reason to put together a show of force like this is to kick off the re-election campaign on a strong footing'' said Ricardo Rouvier, a pollster at Rouvier & Asoc. in Buenos Aires. ''The government has gone to huge lengths to put together such a cross-section of the country's political and social forces.''

Supporters brought flags that read ''Kirchner 2007'' and chanted ''Kirchner, friend, the people are with you.''

A poll this month by Rouvier showed that 54.3% of Argentines back Kirchner while 19.8% support Mauricio Macri of the opposition Pro party and 13.2% Elisa Carrio of the ARI party. Rouvier surveyed 1,200 people throughout the country from May 6 to May 16 for the poll, which has a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points.

Former Santa Cruz province governor Nestor Kirchner, 56, dwarfs his political rivals in polls after three years of economic growth of more than 8%.

Three years of economic expansion, fueled by record exports of commodities such as soybeans, cereals, steel and oil, have strengthened Kirchner's popularity by driving down the country's jobless rate and driving up wages.

Rosendo Fraga, a political analyst with Nueva Mayoria pollsters, said Kirchner chose to hold the rally at the Plaza de Mayo for symbolic reasons.

The plaza, where first lady Evita Peron addressed the nation in the 1940s and 1950s and where mothers marched decades later to demand the military dictatorship provide information on the whereabouts of their detained children, was also where General Galtieri celebrated in 1982 the invasion of the Falklands' and the epicenter of riots that left more than 30 people dead in late 2001, weeks prior to the default.

Kirchner recalled that on May 25, 1973 when the triumphal return of President Juan Peron he was present at Plaza de Mayo "the last time the Argentine people, the Argentine workers were really in possession of the plaza".

"Plaza de Mayo belongs to the workers, to Eva Peron, to the Grandmothers and Mothers of Plaza de Mayo", underlined President Kirchner emphasizing on the 30.000 disappeared from the last military dictatorship.

But this is also "the plaza of the "bye, bye" to the Monetary Fund. Argentina no longer depends on the IMF, and we're very proud of it".

''We don't want growth anymore like that of the 1990s, where only a small group got wealthy,'' Kirchner said. ''If Argentina is doing well, the workers, the middle class and the business executives all have to be doing well.''

Argentina's economy, while now saddled with quickening inflation sparked in part by higher government spending, is still poised to grow 7.5% this year. The average worker's salary has risen 51% to 839 pesos a month from 552 pesos when Kirchner took office three years ago.