MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
CFK to be Number 2 in Fernández-Fernández ticket for Argentina's presidency
“Political offices were never my main concern,” CFK explained as she chose to run for the vicepresidency. 
Alberto Fernández the new CFK partner... Former Argentine two-time President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (CFK) rattled an otherwise quiet Saturday morning by announcing she would run for the country's vice-presidency in this year's elections behind her former Cabinet Chief Alberto Fernández.
Alberto Fernández was Cabinet Chief under Néstor Kirchner between 2003 and 2007 and stayed in his position when CFK was elected, but he resigned the following year allegedly due to his eroded image from negotiations with the Argentine Rural Society (SRA) over export taxes. He distanced himself from Cristina since then but came back under the spotlight in 2019 as an acting spokesman for CFK.
A trial against Cristina over alleged acts of corruption during her terms as president is slated to start this coming Tuesday, May 21, but it remains to be seen whether the now serving Senator will choose to appear in court or, instead, shelter behind her parliamentary immunity.
Earlier this past week, the Peronist movement joined ranks behind Cristina for this year's presidential elections, making it clear there would be no other Justicialist candidate in the first round that could diminish her chances at a very much foreseeable runoff with incumbent President Mauricio Macri of the PRO-Cambiemos coalition.
The Justicialist Juan Schiaretti last Sunday was reelected as governor of Còrdoba with around 50 percent of the votes, thus dealing a severe blow to Cambiemos, whose chief candidate, Mario Raúl Negri -originally from the Radical Civil Union (UCR)- drew as little as 17 percent of the votes.
A split UCR is also casting doubts on Cambiemos' strength. Apart from Córdoba, where another Radical candidate (Ramón Mestre Jr. -son of former Governor Ramòn Mestre Sr-) and other Radicals such as Ricardo Alfonsín -son of former President Raúl Alfonsín- chose not to join forces within Cambiemos at a nationwide scale.
CFK's political move is regarded as brilliant by her supporters and as a sign of weakness from Cambiemos' angle.
“She knows she can't win, so she's not running for president not to be regarded as the mother of defeat,” said a Cambiemist supporter.
But “Alberto to govern, Cristina to power!,” celebrated a die-hard Peronist. “We win in the first round!,” he added.
If elected, there's no question who would be making the important decisions. And the vice-presesident can easily be in charge of the Executive, provided the president is away.
It would not be the first time in Argentine history. In 1867, President Bartolomé Mitre had to return from personally leading the Argentine forces in the War of the Triple Alliance when Vicepresident Marcos Paz passed away after months in charge of the Executive.
Top Comments
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Read all comments@EM
May 22nd, 2019 - 04:32 pm +3“To get out of this bleak scenario, the next government needs to put all the cogs of the economy to turn again so that urgently needed jobs are again created”....
That is pretty obvious...BUT, considering that Macri managed to defeat, and took over from CFK - presumably for a good reason...perhaps because the economy was already not going all that well under CFK ? - are you saying that Macri got Argentina into the current situation all by himself, without any 'help' from his predecessor ?
@EM
May 19th, 2019 - 10:03 pm +2Remember the link you sent me on the polls by Clarin ?:
https://www.clarin.com/politica/encuesta-exclusiva-macri-cristina-espejo-balotajes-alternativos_0_YAelXF3Sl.html
and our exchange on April 23rd under the headline “Macri freezes prices on basic goods” ?
Have only quoted the relevant parts of my post..
Quote
“EM
Thanks.
Ok, so Macri's “cambiemos” rose to 31,6%, and the “opposition”, not necessarily CFK, grew to 54. But at this point, still too early to count one's chickens.
”.........In the final voting scenarios, 6 with Macri and 2 without him : in the former scenario, Macri would beat CFK (although by a very small, insignificant margin), but in the latter, Macri's substitute (Vidal) would also beat CFK...and so would would Lavagna (IF he - presumably in the primaries - were to run against CFK).
Remains to be seen if Macri (and CFK, for that matter) end up being the opposing candidates. What would happen without either ? and if the election put Vidal vs Lavagna ?”
Unquote
At the time I had a fleeting thought about the possibililty of CFK stepping down in favor of someone backed by her, and with bigger chances of defeating Macri...Looks like that scenario has become reality.
While she might be taking the back seat (to avoid being such an attractive target while the legal cases against her continue), she'll still be holding the steering wheel...
JB,
May 22nd, 2019 - 05:43 pm +2“Macri managed to defeat, and took over from CFK - presumably for a good reason...perhaps because the economy was already not going all that well under CFK ?”
Indeed. I've asked Reekie about the opinion polls several times but never got a response. If memory serves me correctly, Reekie called the 2015 election and the 2017 mid-terms incorrectly so maybe third time lucky for him? However, the opinion polls are not currently indicating the heavy defeat for Macri that Reekie is predicting so maybe he'll get it wrong again? We shall see...
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