MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Cristina Fernandez reappears in public in electoral mode as crowds called her “President”

The former president also criticized the judicial system: “I am resigned to the fact that Justice does not investigate”. “I serve them as the accused, not as a victim”, she assured.

For the first time since her assassination attempt on September 1, Argentina's Vice-President, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (CFK), reappeared in public at an event that welcomed her with the chant “Cristina presidenta” (Cristina President). She replied that it was possible to repeat the bonanzas of her two consecutive four-year terms in office (2007-2015).

“I will do whatever I have to do to achieve that our people, our society, can organize itself in a project of a country that recovers the illusion, the strength, and the joy of our people,” said CFK in her 40-minute speech.

Metal workers chanted “Cristina presidenta” during her walkabout at an Unión Obrera Metalúrgica (UOM) convention in Pilar, in the province of Buenos Aires, amid strong security measures.

Fernández defended her administration and that of her husband, Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007).

“We come to act on behalf of 12.5 years of government, which brought us out of the most important crisis”, exclaimed Fernandez, who listed the achievements of both governments: higher salaries in dollars, reopening of bargaining, higher participation of salaries in the product, debt relief, recovery of industry and sources of employment, Vaca Muerta.

“We recovered the middle class in Argentina. It is possible to do so because we have already done it”, stated CFK, who differentiated herself from the Government of Mauricio Macri (2015-2019) by blaming the current situation -with an inflation of 85 % and poverty of 39.5 %- on that administration, and not on the one that started in 2019, and from the so-called “libertarian” leaders, who gain popularity by vindicating the convertibility of the 90s.

Fernández explained the “need for an economic consensus” in which political parties, trade unions, and business associations can “discuss at the table ... the country's model to get out of the bimonetary economy.”

“It is essential” to go this way, she insisted.

The former president also criticized the judiciary system and referred to the attack for which three young people are in custody: “Today is exactly 2 months and 3 days since everyone saw it on TV, I also saw it on TV, I did not notice the weapon they wielded and which was intended to blow my head off”.

Regarding the progress of the investigation of the crime, she said that she is “resigned to the fact that Justice does not investigate.”

“I am useful to them as the defendant, not as the victim”, she assured, according to FiloNews.

Alberto Fernández

The vice-president also defended her choice of Alberto Fernández as the presidential candidate in 2019, whom she nominated with a tweet at the time, but with whom she maintains internal tensions and of whom she has been strongly critical. “I have no regrets,” she said. “Political decisions must be judged and evaluated at the time they were taken.” And “today we are as we are.”

CFK distanced herself from the current administration and recalled that she had already expressed her “criticism” of policies and officials. “The Government has to play a role in the distribution of income as we did during our governments,” she added while underlining Minister Sergio Massa's “great effort” after the crisis generated by the departures of Martín Guzmán, whom she strongly disliked, and Silvina Batakis.

Meanwhile, President Alberto Fernández was alongside Bolivian leader Evo Morales at the headquarters of a trade union in the province of Santa Fe.
“Adversity is called right-wing, it is not among us, it is in front of us,” he told attendees. “Adversity keeps threatening us every day. One day they put the gun to Cristina and another day to the Argentine people,” he added, according to La Nación.