Latest news with #CristinaFernandez
Reuters
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Reuters
Argentina ban on former president Kirchner reshapes political landscape
BUENOS AIRES, June 11 (Reuters) - Argentina's supreme court has effectively banned former president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner from government, a move that poses both a challenge and an opportunity for the opposition Peronist party ahead of crunch midterm elections this year. The court upheld a six-year jail term against Kirchner for graft on Tuesday, barring one of the country's most high-profile politicians from holding public office. In the short-term, the decision may enable libertarian President Javier Milei to cement his power base in the October midterm vote, but over the long run it could help revamp the Peronist movement, which was Argentina's most powerful political bloc for decades before being ousted by outsider Milei in 2023. Kirchner, a two-term president from 2007-2015 and a senator and vice president from 2019-2023, faces the possibility of jail time. She will likely be able to push for house arrest because of her age, 72, and the court will decide within five working days whether to grant that request. But she will not be able to run as a legislative candidate in the midterm elections in the province of Buenos Aires, a Peronist stronghold, as she had planned. Nonetheless, the leftist Kirchner, the president and one of the leaders of the Peronist party, may still be able to pull political strings given her strong popular support, especially if she remains out of jail. "Cristina will continue her political career; that's why she's choosing to stay in Buenos Aires, in her department of San José," a source close to the former president told Reuters. Kirchner did not respond to a Reuters interview request. Peronists are divided over whether her political ban will help the movement reinvent itself or if she will cast an even longer shadow than before, hurting up-and-comers like Buenos Aires governor Axel Kicillof who have clashed with her. "This is detrimental to the renewal, because she's now the martyred leader. She's the center of attention," said a source from Kicillof's Buenos Aires provincial government. Kirchner still enjoys significant popular support from close to 30% of the population, polls show, although she is highly divisive - in part due to the corruption cases against her - and would likely struggle to win election. Analysts said that the court ruling could ultimately allow for the party's modernization, at a time some of its leaders, like Kicillof, claim Peronism as a movement is being banished. "For Peronism, it represents the possibility of renewal. Kicillof is playing the victim and, at the same time, becoming independent," said political scientist Andrés Malamud. The ban against Kirchner will take some of the sting out of her bitter rivalry with Milei, but a new more moderate challenger from the Peronist left could hurt the Argentine president if he slips up. "If Milei can keep the economy steady, nothing will happen, but if this doesn't work, it will probably strengthen Kicillof," said analyst Mariel Fornoni from consultancy Management & Fit. The latest polls showed a tie in the important province of Buenos Aires between Milei's La Libertad Avanza and the Peronist opposition for the midterm elections, according to data from the Electoral Observatory. Victory would not give the ruling party a majority in either chamber of Argentina's Congress, but a larger number of legislators would make it easier for the government to approve privatizations of public companies and tax and labor reforms. "Cristina's conviction gives the government a campaign argument it didn't have. Now it won't need to discuss the economic model," said the Buenos Aires government source.
Reuters
9 hours ago
- Business
- Reuters
Argentine market traders cautiously cheer 'future without Cristina'
BUENOS AIRES/NEW YORK, June 11 (Reuters) - Argentine traders cheered on Wednesday a court's political ban on populist former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, a powerful but divisive politician who often clashed with investors and creditors. The country's Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a ruling against the former president, who was sentenced to six years in prison and banned from holding public office for fraud, rejecting an appeal by the leader of the Peronist opposition. "All investors fear a return to Kirchnerism. A future without Cristina.... clears the outlook," said Mariano Sardans of local financial firm FDI Gerenciadora de Patrimonios, citing high-spending, interventionist policies under the Peronists. "The specter that always looms over investors is Kirchnerism and Argentina's falling back into policies of that nature." Current market-friendly libertarian President Javier Milei has been well received by investors, helping boost equities and bonds since he took office in late 2023, ushering in tough austerity and a "zero deficit" drive. Legislative elections in October are seen as a test of his popularity. A positive result in those ballots will help ensure the success of some of his investor-friendly reforms. Fernández, the government's strongest opposition figure, will now be barred from running for a seat she sought in Buenos Aires Province. Sovereign dollar bonds were trading slightly higher on the day while the benchmark S&P Merval stock index (.MERV), opens new tab fell over 1% after rising more than 4% on Tuesday. Other analysts were more cautious, warning about tough economic challenges ahead, including rebuilding foreign exchange reserves. "The impact on the market will most likely be limited, since the Supreme Court's ruling doesn't solve Argentina's macroeconomic problems," said Roberto Geretto, an economist at local firm Adcap.
Al Jazeera
18 hours ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Argentina's top court upholds Fernandez de Kirchner's corruption conviction
Argentina's Supreme Court has upheld a six-year prison sentence on corruption charges for former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. The ruling on Tuesday, which permanently bars the divisive 72-year-old from public office and makes her subject to arrest, prompted crowds of her supporters to block the streets of Buenos Aires in protest. The left-wing former president denounced the ruling, claiming the court's judges were acting in the service of the economically powerful. 'They're three puppets answering to those ruling far above them,' she told supporters outside her party's headquarters in Buenos Aires, in an apparent reference to the government of her rival, President Javier Milei. 'It's the concentrated economic power of Argentina's government.' The ruling was welcomed by Milei, a libertarian fiercely opposed to Fernandez de Kirchner's brand of high-spending politics, which critics blamed for years of economic volatility and soaring inflation. 'Justice. End,' he wrote on X. Fernandez de Kirchner, who succeeded her husband Nestor Kirchner as president in 2007 and remained in power until 2015, had been found guilty by a federal court in 2022 of having directed irregular state public works contracts to a friend during her and her husband's years in power. She claimed the conviction was politically motivated and appealed to the Supreme Court. But the judges rejected Fernandez de Kirchner's appeal, writing in a resolution that her sentence did 'nothing more than … protect our republican and democratic system', The Associated Press news agency reported. 'The sentences handed down by the previous courts were based on the abundance of evidence produced,' the judges wrote, according to the AFP news agency. The ruling makes her conviction and appeal definitive, and likely draws a line under her lengthy political career, just days after she launched her campaign for the Buenos Aires legislative elections in September. The former president has five days to turn herself in to authorities, although her lawyer has requested she be able to serve her sentence under house arrest due to her age, the AP reported. The threat of arrest mobilised the former president's supporters around her. Daniel Dragoni, a councillor from Buenos Aires, told AFP he was 'destroyed' by the ruling but promised that her left-wing political movement would 'return, as always'. But historian Sergio Berensztein told AFP he believed the calls for her release would be short-lived and have limited effect. 'She is not the Cristina of 2019,' he said.
Bloomberg
21 hours ago
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Argentina's Top Court Bans Kirchner From Office for Life
By Updated on Save Takeaways NEW Leer en español Argentina's Supreme Court upheld former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's fraud conviction, ratifying her sentence to six years in prison as well as a lifelong ban on holding public office, according to the court ruling reviewed by Bloomberg.
Bloomberg
a day ago
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Kirchner's Ban From Office Marks New Chapter for Argentina
Argentina's top court sidelined former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner from elections, likely ushering in a new political era in South America's second biggest economy. Just a week after President Javier Milei's arch rival announced a bid in a key midterm race, the Supreme Court banned the opposition leader from public office for life, delivering a major political victory for Milei as he works to convince investors that Argentina is changing. The ruling forces Peronism — the country's dominant political force for decades — to reinvent itself, while leaving Milei without his most emblematic adversary in an increasingly polarized nation.
