Cristina Kirchner: divisive left-winger tainted by fraud
DURING two decades at the forefront of Argentine politics, Cristina Kirchner inspired love and loathing in equal measure, but rarely indifference.
She has made several comebacks over the years – even escaping unscathed from an assassination attempt – but may now have come to the end of her political tether.
On Tuesday, the country's Supreme Court upheld Kirchner's six-year prison sentence for a graft conviction and confirmed a lifetime ban on her holding public office.
The 72-year-old has five days to present herself to authorities for arrangements to be made for serving her sentence.
Kirchner was born in 1953 in the small town of Tolosa, just outside the Argentine capital Buenos Aires.
The daughter of a bus driver and a housewife, she often played up her lower middle-class roots, though she could never hide her love of luxury brands and travel.
She first came to prominence as one half of the ultimate political power couple with husband Nestor.
The pair met at university when they were both law students passionate about Peronism – a leftist ideology based on the legacy of former ruler Juan Peron.
Nestor Kirchner became president in 2003, serving one term, before Cristina was elected in 2007. They expected to continue their term-for-term tango, but he died of a heart attack in 2010.
Together, the couple served a collective 12 years in the Casa Rosada, the pink presidential palace, with Cristina exiting the top office for the last time in 2015.
She later served as vice-president to her former chief of staff Alberto Fernandez.
To their working-class base, the Kirchners were saviours after Argentina's 2001 economic meltdown and the social unrest that followed the largest debt default in history.
They were seen as standing up for the little guy against bullies both foreign and domestic.
Addressing supporters outside her party headquarters after the Supreme Court ruling, she depicted her tenure as a golden era, when Argentine workers "had the highest salaries in Latin America and pensioners had the highest pensions."
Her two terms, during a commodities boom, were characterised by protectionist trade policies and major investments in social programs and subsidies, which caused public spending to spiral.
Under her stewardship Argentina became a regional bastion of LGBTQ rights, allowing gay marriage in 2010 and passing a gender identity law in 2012.
For her detractors, however, Kirchner is a corrupt, overbearing interventionist who steered the country toward economic ruin and rampant inflation with her debt-fuelled spending sprees.
One of her major critics is incumbent President Javier Milei, whose budget-slashing austerity policies Kirchner has in turn slammed as inhumane.
In December 2022, Kirchner was found guilty of fraudulently awarding public works contracts during her time as president in her southern Patagonian stronghold of Santa Cruz.
Just months earlier, at a pro-Kirchner demonstration, a man pointed a revolver in Kirchner's face and pulled the trigger. The gun did not fire.
On Tuesday, after Argentina's Supreme Court upheld Kirchner's conviction on appeal, and confirmed a six-year prison sentence that she may ask to convert to house arrest given her age.
Kirchner has been defiant throughout, accusing the justice system of persecuting Peronism.
Just a week ago, she announced she would seek election to the government of Buenos Aires province in September elections. A win would have given her immunity for the duration of her term.
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