MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

A former secretary of Nestor Kirchner claims she was his mistress

Self-declare mistress and the widow

A former secretary of Nestor Kirchner, the late ex-president of Argentina, has claimed she was his long-term mistress weeks after being sacked by his widow and successor, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

Elizabeth Miriam Quiroga, 50, said she formed a “strong union” with Mr Kirchner after she began working for him in the 1990s. The admission will add to speculation in Buenos Aires that the Kirchner marriage was maintained out of mutual interest for the benefit of their political careers.

Mrs Kirchner was elected after her husband stood aside after four years as president to allow his wife to run in 2007.

Allegations that her husband conducted a long-running affair could overshadow the 57-year old bid for a second term in October's election. Mrs Quiroga said she had tried to speak with Mrs. Kirchner after being told she was to be removed from her job but with no success.

Mrs. Quiroga made the claims in an interview in this week's edition of the Argentine magazine Noticias, which features a picture of her on the front cover alongside the headline: 'Kirchner's other widow.'

She said her relationship with Mr Kirchner began when he was the governor of the southern province of Santa Cruz in the nineties and that she followed him to Buenos Aires as his secretary after he became president in 2003.

Mrs. Quiroga was dismissed a month ago from her latest government job, as director of the Presidential Documentation Centre.

Asked why she was sacked, she replied: “Maybe because some people say that I was Kirchner's lover. Cristina must have heard this.

”It was well known that I was Kirchner's lover. I had a strong union with him. I left everything to come with him from the south. I left my family.”

Ms Quiroga said Kirchner “tried to surround himself with intelligent people. I would discuss some of his orders, but it was not easy”.

The former secretary has an 11 year daughter, “but it’s not Kirchner’s” she said adding “wish she was; wouldn’t have any money problems now!” Ms. Quiroga said she has no car, rents a flat and can barely make ends meet since sacked.

Her job according to the official Argentine news agency DYN was filled by a relative from the chairman of the political group “La Cámpora” organized by Kirchner’s son Maximo as the youth branch of the Kirchners political movement.

The Kirchners had been compared by some to the Clintons in the US as a married 'power couple' who maintained high-profile separate political careers.

Mrs Kirchner was by her husband's side when he died in October last year at the age of 60. As recently as New Year's Day Mrs. Kirchner missed the swearing in ceremony for Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff due to grief.

But now she faces renewed speculation about her marriage, which lasted for 35 years before Mr. Kirchner's death.