MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mrs. Kirchner believes Obama has read Perón's writings

CFK jokes about Pte. Obama & Peron...

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said this week she was pleased when she heard US President Barack Obama say that “trade unions are not part of the problem but part of the solution”.

She then quipped, "I don't know if Obama has read Perón, but believe me, it looks like it". Peron a former Army general was the founder of the Justicialista party in Argentina, which had dominated the country's politics since the 1940's. He was three times president and based his support on strong trade unions and populism. Mrs Kirchner was speaking at a ceremony to announce a deal with the workers of the recently-nationalized airline Aerolíneas Argentinas. The President also compared the measures being adopted worldwide to counter the effects of the global economic crisis with those introduced by her husband and predecessor Néstor Kirchner in 2003. We could even say that they are "copying this model," she said. Mrs. Kirchner's statements were made on the same day that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast that the Argentine economy will not grow at all this year, but it will recover and is due to expand 1.5% in 2010.