MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Cristina Fernandez tells Russian television she has no favorite presidential candidate

”Favoritism in presidential succession no, that was part of monarchic systems. It has no place in democracies,” said Cristina Fernandez at RT Studio

Argentine President Cristina Fernández revealed on Thursday she does not have any favorite presidential candidates for the upcoming October elections, and eluded to answer about her future in politics during an interview with RT Moscow during her official visit in Russia.

 “Kings had favorites… no, no, no, no, no. That -meaning favoritism in presidential succession- was part of monarchic systems. It has no place in democracies,” said Cristina Fernandez when asked about who was her favorite candidate for the upcoming presidential elections.

The Argentine head of state said she feels “proud” of having been the author of a law to “democratize the political parties system” and stressed the importance of having “open simultaneous primary elections” to allow citizens to decide their candidates.

“No one believed in the PASO elections, not even my fellow governors. They thought no one was going to vote. Newspapers, radio, television, everyone bet the PASO were going to be a failure. But they turned out to be a total success,” she added.

Making a balance of her presidency, Cristina Fernandez mentioned one of her “debts” was to pass a reform to democratize the judiciary. “It’s something people demand. If you study the polls, people perceive justice does not reach the powerful, they perceive justice is slow… it has many flaws.”

“We wanted to at least allow the people to have a vote in the organism that qualifies judges. This was a reform we tried to put forward, but it didn’t pass. Nevertheless, the reform will be treated sooner or later, because society demands it. Things tend to advance gradually.”

The reform was also resisted by opposition sectors, the president acknowledged, adding that if she was “president of Disneyland” everyone is going to like her, but being president of Argentina “is something completely different.”

Asked about what are her plans for when she leaves the presidency in December, Cristina Fernandez laughed and jokingly asked the interviewer if he was trying to send her home to take care of her grandkids.

“Being president is not important; is what you did as president that is important. It’s what you did in life what’s most important, not the position you occupied,” she said.

The Argentine leader also rebuked criticisms for the close links with Vladimir Putin's Russia. “Nobody can claim the monopoly of friendship, we can have relations with any country we wish to, we are a sovereign nation”. She then added that “many people are still caught in the binary logics of friend-enemy, just as it was during the Cold War”.

Emphasizing relations with Russia the Argentine leader said “I believe that Russia is a player of a global, worldwide scale, its participation is investable; this is why I don’t see reasons why there should be no bilateral relations (between Argentina and Russia)”.

“I think that, despite all assertions that the Cold War and confrontations are in the past, that we live in more global world, there are many who still follow double standards, when for existence or supremacy they need an enemy”.

However the Argentine president also stressed that not Russia but the US remains “the most important investor” for Argentina.

“Then we should be worried about such amount of Americans in our country, especially given the current events in the world,” Cristina Fernandez stressed. “It is an absurd to really think that Russia is a threat.”