MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

FT mocks Mrs. K devotion to foreign travel

Forced to delegate if she wants to keep travelling

The Buenos Aires Financial Times office wrote a scathing article about the Argentine First Lady and presidential candidate Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner saying she devotes so much time to foreign travel during her election campaign that it almost looks as though “she is running for a job at the United Nations, not the presidency of Argentina”.

Jude Webber admits that Senator Cristina Fernandez who spent last week courting financiers, business leaders and diplomats on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, "is virtually certain to glide to victory on October 28 in a seamless succession to her husband, President Néstor Kirchner". The article then refers to the several "pressing overseas as well as domestic issues on her desk when she takes office on December 10, --if Cristina wins as opinion polls predict?", among which Argentina's mounting inflation that private economists estimate to be at double the official estimate of 9.6%. However the high profile public relations blitz in New York was "to show a candidate committed to putting Argentina back on the map six years after its debt default cut it adrift from the international financial community and someone with whom world leaders can do business". But the fundamental challenge facing the next government is how to attract investment and despite sustained growth of more than 8% annually, Argentina needs more spending in sectors such as energy, infrastructure and transport, which rely heavily on foreign investment. "Ms Fernández has gone out of her way to visit foreign companies and presidents to urge them to invest and assure them that their commitments to Argentina will be safe" and the Argentine government is scurrying to wrap up a long overdue deal with the Paris Club of creditor nations to reschedule Argentina's 6 billion US dollars debt. This would enable Cristina Fernández "to kick off her prospective presidency with a powerful overture to western governments that would also unblock several billion dollars of frozen loans". Nevertheless The Financial Times recalls that Cristina has made no signal that she would seek a deal with the holders of 20 billion US dollars of bonds - many in Italy, Germany, the US and Japan - who refused a 2005 restructuring. "Their litigation weighs on international relations and dampens Argentina's image abroad". Another thorny issue is the close ties with Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, who has bought Argentine debt and launched a joint bond. However Cristina does not share Chavez fondness for Iran particularly since Argentina blames former Iranian leaders for ordering the 1994 bombing of a Jewish centre in Buenos Aires. The First Lady argues Argentina doesn't have to be friends with "our friends' friends" and is likely to want to put her own, perhaps more selective, stamp on relations with Venezuela, though she would have little room for maneuver given Argentina's financial dependence. At the same time she is expected to be warmer towards Washington, which is critical of Mr Chávez, especially if Hillary Clinton is elected president next year. Finally the article points out that as in most foreign policy challenges, including the Falkland Islands, she has not yet spelled out her position, but whatever her policies Cristina Fernández is likely to continue her foreign travel to sell her can-do image which she seems to love so much. And this could yield one of the biggest changes compared with President Kirchner's "ultra hands-on style" of full control over domestic affairs, because if Cristina doesn't delegate, "she can't travel much".