MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

“Sincerely”, Cristina Fernandez book of anecdotes to be launched on Friday

Sincerely, Cristina Fernandez opens her heart and mind...not completely

Two times Argentine president Cristina Fernandez is launching a book next Friday, a collection of personal anecdotes and momentous experiences of her political life, anticipation of its official presentation in the Buenos Aires Book Fair on 9 May.

“The book is not an autobiography or a enumeration of personal and political achievements, but an overview and reflection of some issues of recent history which have had a great impact on the lives of Argentines and on my own”, Cristina Fernandez points out in the introduction of the 600 page book “Sincerely”.

The book is also seen as an anticipation of her presidential bid next October.

Among those issues are the death of special prosecutor Alberto Nisman, the AMIA bomb attack and the Iran affair, the taking over of the private pension scheme, AFJP, the origin of her family's fortune, relations with Jorge Bergoglio, who was to become the first Latin American pope.

Here's what Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has to say about some hot topics – and a few of her political enemies:

Leaving office

“It was my decision to withdraw because I felt that everything had been very dizzying, maybe too intense. We all needed to rest: I from the Argentines and the Argentines from me, because to govern this country... ¡mamita!”

Current president Mauricio Macri

“If someone asked me to define Mauricio Macri in a single word, the only one that comes to mind is: chaos. Yes, Mauricio Macri is chaos and that is why I firmly believe we have to return to order in Argentina.”

Failure of the current coalition

“Macri could have been a very successful capitalist, discipline the agriculture export sector with different tariffs and levies, but he preferred to join the vultures of the financial system”

Family assets

“We never reached public office poor. And much less the presidency of the Nation”

Nestor and Reelection

“I remember when he told me, ”I can run again and then you follow', 'Never in my wildest dreams' I replied. Because if I was to become candidate after two consecutive terms of Nestor, you can be sure they would argue, 'he's having his wife run because he can't be reelected (for a second time)“

Holidays with Nestor

”A summer day Nestor was with his collection of newspapers, Clarin, La Nacion, Pagina 12, Cronica, Ambito Financiero, La Prensa, El Dia de La Plata and all the magazines he could get hold off. He would go to a local coffee shop at the seaside of Cariló while I went shopping. Obviously I was dressed up impeccably as for a big party...while Nestor had a T shirt, swimming trunks, slippers and a simple cap. And in comes this lady and approaches Nestor and asks him for a copy of La Nacion. I was just walking in and Nestor replied , 'No madam I can't, they belong to the lady-boss that is coming in“.

Nestor Kirchner and foreboding

”Néstor told me: 'They are going to persecute you and your children.' It wasn't loud. He was serious and when I asked him 'Why do you say that?', he immediately changed the conversation. It was in El Calafate.

I cannot remember if it was during the last week that we were together. “

Nestor Kirchner and love

”Love is wanting to be with another. To listen to them, to talk, to do anything. I loved being with him [Néstor] and he with me. He always told me: 'The only thing I never got bored of was you.'“

Public works

”I cannot fail to note that the two main works of [Santa Cruz] province, the international airport of El Calafate and the deepwater port of Caleta Olivia, were made by two important contractors of public works, with a long history in the Argentine Republic. Benito Roggio e Hijos started as a construction company in 1908 and ESUCO, owned by Carlos Wagner, the former president of the Chamber of Construction, in 1948. This is why it is outrageous and offensive to one's intelligence that in 2018, within the framework of what is known as 'the cause of the photocopies of the notebooks' [otherwise known as the 'cuadernos' graft probe], the owners of construction companies of public works with 110 years of history and 70 the other (among many others) say that only recently, in 2004, did the [former] Federal Planning minister Julio De Vido summon them and teach them how to cartelize public works like children in a kindergarten. Ridiculous.“

CGT umbrella union

”When I remember the five general strikes that they carried out during my last term, I cannot help but think that there was also a strong gender component [to it all] ... the CGT is a confederation in which there are no women driving.“

Nestor and Jorge Bergoglio, later Pope Francis

”At the first lunch, I remember that we talked about Néstor and I said: 'Do you know what I think happened between you both Jorge?' (Because I say Jorge when we speak and not 'His Holiness' and he, obviously, Cristina) Deep down, I think Argentina was too small a country for you two together.'“

Pope Francis

”In those days the neighbors from Barrio Norte and Recoleta, the richest and most possh boroughs of Buenos Aires, hanged Vatican yellos and white flags from their balconies to celebrate the nomination of Bergoglio as Pope. I'm sure that at first they believed to have found a new leader for the battle against the “mare”. But when my congratulations became public as well as my decision to fly to Rome, the celebrations of the opposition started to vanish. It was incredible, gradually the flags started to disappear. It was quite clear, despite tensions we had with Bergoglio, they never understood us, not me or Nestor and much less Bergoglio. They had the secret hope that Francis, who chose his name from Saint Francis of Assis, saint of the poor, was to become the tenacious opponent of our government“

Memorandum of Understanding with Iran

”The illusion of signing the Memorandum [of Understanding with Iran] and imagining the photograph of the Argentine judge in charge of the case sitting in Tehran taking statements from the Iranian defendants was, today I can confirm, a true ingenuity on our part, which made us forget the geopolitical interests to hand.”