ARGENTINA: Two Drivers at the Wheel?

• by Marcela Valente (buenos aires)
• Wednesday, February 18, 2009
• Inter Press Service

Analysts say his influence has tarnished the administration of his wife and successor, Christina Fernandez, and is having an impact on government institutions.

Kirchner had the unique opportunity to join his wife - the first woman president - as if elected directly by the ballot box. Nevertheless, and despite joking that he would be 'the first gentleman', he is far from having a minor role in the current administration.

Now, only 14 months into Fernandez's four-year term, various observers interviewed by IPS agreed that, without a doubt, the couple 'co-governs'.

Kirchner doesn't hide his role in affairs of state, unlike the low profile maintained by his wife under the previous administration from 2003-2007, although she was the principal senator of the governing centre-left wing of the Peronist (Partido Justicialista) Party.

Carla Carrizo, professor of political science at the Catholic University of Argentina, believes that co-governing 'has a negative effect on the struggle for consolidated modern institutional development, and equally in the battle for gender equality'.

Nevertheless, she believes that the gap between the expected leadership and the leadership actually displayed by the president does not relate to the fact that she is a woman but to the questionable legitimacy of her political origins. She was designated a candidate by her husband and not selected for a distinguished record of service.

Fernandez used to say that in being a woman 'everything will cost double' but far from fighting against prejudices, she has accepted a co-governing role that weakens her, Carrizo observed to IPS. From the start of her administration, her husband's influence was visible.

In the last few weeks, the involvement of Kirchner grew even more apparent. From his office in the presidential residence at Olivos, in the capital Buenos Aires, he was seen receiving governors, military officers, ministers, and other officials.

Worried over the upcoming legislative elections this year, Kirchner, who presides over the Peronist Party, has been going over with governors and military officials his plans for public works projects and making funds available, analysts have affirmed. This unusual practice was apparent for more than one beneficiary.

The most blatant case was Ricardo Quintela, officer of La Rioja, capital of the same province, who admitted in a press conference that 'he didn't expect that Kirchner would respond so speedily to the signing of agreements for public works projects'.

The former president had promised to facilitate Quintela's request and he fulfilled his promise. In one week, the national government sent a check for close to 28 million dollars.

Meanwhile, Fernandez sees herself in a traditional role. 'Women work a double shift: as professionals, employees... and as housewives,' she declared upon announcing a credit programme for the purchase of washing machines, kitchen supplies, heaters and other appliances.

'I live with an ex-president and I am the president, but for things that must be resolved in the domestic arena, we don't consult him,' she remarked. 'I never lose my place in the house. Also, it is I who disciplines Florence', referring to her daughter, adding: 'We women are condemned to be the witches of the family.'

For sociologist Cecilia Lipszyc, president of the Association of University Specialists in Women's Studies, the Kirchners have long been 'a political couple' and while she is under his influence 'from the shadows', he 'doesn't hide himself because he's imbued with a patriarchal concept of power'.

Lipszyc, also a member of the National institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism, maintains that Fernandez 'doesn't stand out' unlike her husband who shows off his influence as part of his 'machismo'.

She recalled a comment he made in November, at a union rally. In a joking tone, the former president confessed that every morning his wife scolded him: 'Nestor, what a vice president you gave me!'

The reference was to vice president Julio Cobos, a dissident in the opposition Radical Civic Union, who after aligning himself with 'Kirchnerism' to be elected, has turned against some of the president's initiatives.

'That anecdote, in which he referred to the president as 'Cristina', de-legitimises her role, and worse, it was said in a patriarchal tone and among a crowd of men,' Lipszyc noted to IPS. Kirchner even boasted about having been the one who decided that the presidential formula for his wife should include Cobos, she said.

Political analyst Rosenda Fraga, of Nueva Mayoria, underscored the paradox. 'Kirchner was the president who reconstituted presidential authority after the crisis of 2001. But now, with a secondary role in which his wife holds the power, he is weakening the very presidential authority that he had built.'

'Neither he nor most of the party leadership realise the serious institutional confusion that this implies,' warned Fraga.

In fact, many government employees, former employees and leaders, from the ruling party and opposition, refer to the executive branch as 'the presidential marriage'. For Carrizo, 'this gives a name to an anomaly, because the position of president should be one single person.'

Carrizo sees Fernandez as 'a victim of her own political tradition' and noted the 'original sin' that marred her designation as candidate for president. In the Peronist party, she says, 'there is no neutrality' for these designations.

'What is the difference between Cristina Fernandez and other women leaders such as (Chilean president Michelle) Bachelet, (the head of the German government, Angela) Merkel, or the French socialist leader Segolene Royal?' Carrizo asks rhetorically. 'Why is Cristina's leadership so disappointing?'

For Carrizo, the problems are not rooted in her 'being a woman' nor 'for her daring style', as she has insisted in various talks and interviews. 'We live in a time when political women need not fight to enter the system but are already inside and most show what they can do,' she declared.

The problem is 'the lack of political parties with clear rules,' she said. 'When there are no rules, what takes over is tradition, which in the case of the Peronist party is reactionary,' she warned. 'More than a matter of leadership, what we're seeing here is the structure that sustains this tradition.'

While Bachelet, Merkel or Royal, with or without a husband, follow the rules of their particular political parties, Fernandez was designated 'by the pointing finger' of her husband as if power was a patrimonial matter, said Carrizo. The origin of the current political weakness of Fernandez is here - now exploited by her own husband.

Political women as much as men 'must not legitimise marital succession', Carrizo said, which harks back to a 'pre-modern, patriarchal system', at a time when society 'has already emancipated itself from these ideas for at least two generations.'

© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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