Cristina Fernández de Kirchner

Who is Cristina Fernández de Kirchner?

Cristina Elisabet Fernández de Kirchner, known as Cristina Kirchner or CFK, is the 52nd and current President of Argentina and widow of former president Néstor Kirchner. She is Argentina's first elected female president, the second woman to hold the position and the first woman re-elected. A Justicialist, Fernández served one term as National Deputy and three terms as National Senator for both Santa Cruz and Buenos Aires provinces.

A native of La Plata, Buenos Aires Province, Fernández is a graduate of the National University of La Plata. She met her husband during her studies, and they moved to Santa Cruz to work as lawyers. In May 1991, she was elected to the provincial legislature. Between 1995 and 2007, she was repeatedly elected to the Argentine National Congress, both as a National Deputy and National Senator. During Kirchner's presidency she acted as First Lady. Fernández was chosen as the Front for Victory presidential candidate in 2007.

In the October 2007 general election she obtained 45.3% of the vote and a 22% lead over her nearest rival, avoiding a runoff election. She was inaugurated on 10 December 2007, and was re-elected to a second term in the first round of the October 2011 general election, with 54.1% and 37.3% over the next candidate, Hermes Binner. Critics of Kirchner's administration charged it with corruption, crony capitalism, falsification of public statistics, harassment of Argentina's independent media and use of the tax agency as a censorship tool.