• Profile: Alberto Fernández, the president under the shadow of Cristina Kirchner

Peronism and its subspecies, Kirchnerism, always arrogate the representation of the Argentine popular classes, something that History partly confirms. The striking thing is that in these days in which the distribution and power structure that Argentina will lead from December 10 is being defined - when Alberto Fernández will assume the Presidency - decisions come and go between two floors located in the two areas most expensive and exclusive in Buenos Aires: Puerto Madero and Recoleta. Especially Recoleta, home of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, twice president and future vice president of Fernández.

What happens in that apartment located in a rich neighborhood that mostly detests Cristina? It happens a lot, a lot. Among other things, the consolidation of Kirchnerism as a power with its own life in the Government, Parliament and influence in justice, a political pole with all the conditions to set limits and impose vetoes on the new president.

"The cabinet is basically defined ," Fernandez said days ago after visiting Cristina, who had just arrived from two weeks in Cuba, where she spent almost three months this year occupied in the health situation of her daughter Florencia, prosecuted by the money laundering and medically treated on the Castro Island. Fernández did not hide that he waited for the woman who appointed him as a candidate to obtain the approval of the appointments for his Government. Green light and some veto, such as the one suffered by Martin Redrado, former president of the Central Bank, and Cristina is not forgiven for having testified in one of the many judicial cases for corruption she faces. Redrado had been named by Fernández weeks ago as someone he would count on for a very important position. The "zero influence" that Cristina would have on the formation of the cabinet, Fernandez said weeks ago, proved illusory.

In that meeting four on the floor of the former president there were only two more people: Wado de Pedro, a loyal to Cristina, but at the same time Fernandez's ally, who could be the next Minister of the Interior. And Máximo Kirchner, son of presidents twice: from the late Nestor and Cristina. Máximo is shattering those descriptions that for years placed him as a young taciturn, of little loquacity and attached to the PlayStation. None of that: the young leader will be the new spokesman for the Peronist bloc in the Chamber of Deputies . With his mother as vice president and "owner" of the Senate, Fernández, already a minority in the Chamber of Deputies, could be forced into a double negotiation to carry out his projects: internal and external. Cristina also has free way to designate the provisional president of the Senate , who will be one or a loyal one. Thus, the second and third authorities of the country would be allies and a strong counterweight to the president elected on October 27. In the Senate, in addition, there could be two Peronist blocks: one Christian and one albertist .

"A long term strategy"

According to Clarín , by not aspiring to the Presidency and reserving second place in the formula, Cristina Kirchner developed "a long-term strategy" that includes diluting her problems with Justice. "The plan of the former president to nominate Alberto Fernández as head of the executive branch, it is now known, was completed with her own landing as a driver of the Legislative branch and, indirectly, of the judiciary." Thus, "the laws promoted by the president will have the double check of mother and son." Carlos Pagni, a renowned local analyst, summed up the situation: "Political power, until proven otherwise, has it."

Controlling the Senate is also important for the Kirchners -Maximo is prosecuted in the same two cases as his sister Florencia-, because through the Upper House "agreements for the appointment of judges and also for the promotion of military and diplomatic designations pass ", highlights Clarín . What does that involve? "In the judicial situation that Cristina, her family and her former officials go through, having this power so close to the professional career of the magistrates will be a decisive advantage."

The transition to December 10 - day of the inauguration of the elected president, Alberto Fernández - offers positive and other disturbing aspects . The positives are that the economy did not fall apart - in part thanks to the strong restrictions for the purchase of foreign currency, a kind of artificial respirator that supports the Argentine peso - and that the Government of Mauricio Macri will arrive on December 10 and effectively follow exercising power. It is not little in Argentina, where 91 years ago that a non-Peronist administration fails to reach the end of its period.

The disturbing statements are the very varied statements of Fernández, who has not yet presented an economic strategy, but fights with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, criticizes the American, Donald Trump, and advises his Chilean neighbor, Sebastián Piñera about how govern better, while inviting the exiled Evo Morales and the newly released Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to his inauguration. These international policy movements can cause fragility in the Argentine economy , which depends on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to renegotiate its debt, and therefore Trump. Also because of the fact that Brazil is the third destination of Argentine exports and the first of its industrial products.

What not few Argentine analysts intuit is that Fernández abuses left-wing rhetoric to add "credits" in the face of a series of very unpopular measures that he must take once he assumes the position of president. Although always with something present, according to a phrase that the local media attributed to having told Macri in his post-election meeting: "What worries me is to solve the problems for my partner . "

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  • Alberto Fernandez
  • Mauricio Macri
  • Sebastian Piñera
  • Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
  • Donald Trump
  • Evo Morales
  • Cuba
  • Brazil
  • Jair Bolsonaro
  • Argentina Elections

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