BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — There is a before and after to Cristina Fernandez, the combative Argentine leader likely to win a landslide re-election victory today.
Following the successful turn of her husband, Nestor Kirchner, as president, Fernandez was vexed by one crisis after another.
Powerful agricultural interests lined up against her tax increases. Financial analysts predicted imminent economic collapse. Most people polled disapproved of her leadership, and secret U.S. Embassy cables repeated speculation that she might not even finish her term. Then Kirchner, her nearly lifelong collaborator, died of a heart attack Oct. 27, 2010.
An outpouring of sympathy turned his funeral into a national catharsis, and Fernandez changed her tone. She left behind the “all or nothing” rhetoric she and her husband had wielded against their enemies and presented herself as a president for all Argentines.
Before, she would confront rivals with both index fingers extended, jabbing the air.
After her husband’s death, her face softened in grief. She shelved her reflexive sarcasm and called on allies to show moderation.
All the while, Fernandez proved to doubters that she could rule without the aid of her power-broker husband.
Her enemies hoped and allies feared that the widow would fall apart without Kirchner’s constant support. Instead, the economy kept booming and Fernandez introduced more social programs that helped reduce poverty. Her approval ratings soared to 70 percent this month.
If polling trends hold, she could receive more votes than her six remaining challengers combined, becoming the first female president in Latin America to be re-elected. Fernandez, 58, might even approach the 60 percent victory margins twice achieved by her populist hero, President Juan Domingo Peron.
She may win enough votes in Congress to regain the control she lost in 2009 as Argentina’s leading news media lined up against her.
