PROFILE: Argentina's Kirchner makes history again

By Cecilia Caminos Oct 24, 2011, 2:36 GMT

Buenos Aires - President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner made Argentine history Sunday, winning a record third consecutive term for the Peronist Front for Victory (FPV) party founded by her husband in 2003.

She has scored unprecedented victories before.

The first woman elected to the Argentine presidency four years ago, she won re-election Sunday with the largest share of the vote since the return to democracy in 1983, with a margin that could be historic.

Cristina, as she is widely known, was elected president in 2007, succeeding her husband, Nestor Kirchner. His unexpected death, just a year ago, ended a political partnership that had spanned decades.

'Their marriage was more than a marriage. It was also the foundation of a political partnership whose loyalty was unaltered for more than three decades,' says Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's biographer, Sandra Russo. 'That must be why Cristina never felt her married name was a sign of submission but of belonging.'

Cristina Fernandez was born February 19, 1953, into a middle-class family in La Plata, in Buenos Aires province. She studied law at the National University of La Plata, where she met Kirchner, a classmate and fellow political activist.

They married in 1975, and after the March 1976 military coup they moved to Santa Cruz, Nestor Kirchner's home province, where they opened a law practice and had two children, Maximo and Florencia.

By 1987, they had both moved into politics. Nestor Kirchner was elected mayor of Santa Cruz's capital.

At his side, Cristina was forging a career as a legislator. She was elected a provincial deputy in Santa Cruz, and in 1995 entered the national Congress.

While her husband was provincial governor of Santa Fe, Cristina was a rebellious senator. But when Nestor Kirchner became president, she became a star, softening her image to that of a glamorous first lady.

The power couple governed together - each is said to have been the other's closest advisor. And when she sought the presidency in 2007, Cristina got a leg up from her husband. Without holding intra-party primaries, Nestor Kirchner decided to appoint his wife the FPV candidate, a decision eventually endorsed by voters.

With the presidency, she inherited a nation in booming recovery from the economic collapse of 2001-02.

But her first crisis came soon in a tax revolt by farmers. She forged ahead, and a few months later, took one of the boldest steps of her presidency: nationalization of private pension funds.

In 2009, her party was thrown into turmoil by a resounding defeat in the mid-term legislative elections. Nestor Kirchner lost his congressional seat, and the FPV lost control of Congress amid the lowest approval ratings of Cristina's presidency.

Kirchner redoubled her confrontational style while deepening her social agenda, expanding state assistance for the poor in the name of a more just and equal society, a populist focus that has resonated with voters.

Nestor Kirchner's unexpected death on October 27, 2010, at the family's home in the southern resort town of El Calafate, was a devastating blow. But the loss of her companion and governing partner has led to Cristina's political rebirth.

A new, more conciliatory tone has improved her public image. She has remained in mourning, and never fails to allude to her husband in her speeches, though without saying his name.

During her campaign, she referred instead to 'the power of him.'