Kirchnerism

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in formal presidential attire, including the presidential scepter. Husband and former president Néstor Kirchner stands behind her.

Kirchnerism (Spanish: kirchnerismo) is an Argentinian political group formed by the supporters of the late Néstor Kirchner, president of Argentina from 2003 to 2007, and of his wife Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, president from 2007 until 2015. Although the Kirchners are members of the Justicialist Party (the original, official and largest Peronist party, founded by Juan Perón in 1947), Peronism itself is a broad movement, and many Peronists oppose them ("Anti-Kirchnerist Peronism").

Kircherism is generally considered to fall into the category of left-wing populism.^[1][2][3][4]

Kirchnerism, although originally a faction in the Justicialist Party, later received support from other smaller Argentine political parties (like the Communist Party or the Humanist Party), and from factions of some traditional parties (like the Radical Civic Union and the Socialist Party). In parties which are divided along Kirchnerist/Anti-Kirchnerist lines, the members of the Kirchnerist faction are often distinguished with the letter K (for instance "peronistas/justicialistas K", "radicales K" or "socialistas K"), while the factions opposing Kirchnerism are similarly labeled with the expression Anti-K.

In response to the rise of Kirchnerism, the term "Anti-Kirchnerism" has arisen to describe those sectors and persons, as much within as without Peronism, who opposed the governments of Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández.

Characteristics

Rally of youth belonging to La Cámpora. Taken April 2012.

Both Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner come from the left wing of Peronism, and both began their political careers as members of the Peronist Youth (Juventud Peronista). Many of the Kirchners' closest allies belong to the Peronist left. Antikirchnerists often criticize this ideological background with the term setentista ("seventies-ist"), suggesting that Kirchnerism is overly influenced by the populist struggle of the 1970s.

• Kirchnerism has shown itself to be concerned with the defense of human rights, particularly in prosecuting those who committed human rights violations during the Dirty War and were later made immune from prosecution by the governments of Carlos Menem (1989–1999). The willingness of the Kirchner government to revoke these immunities has led many Argentine pressure groups, such as the Madres de Plaza de Mayo and Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo to take an actively Kirchnerist position.^[5] This has led to many controversies and to allegations that the Kirchners were never fully committed to human rights, especially during the period of the last military dictatorship, and that it was only when Néstor Kirchner became president and began to make alliances with the left-wing parties in Congress and with the Madres de Plaza de Mayo that he started to campaign about these rights in order to promote his own platform and gain popular favor. It is documented nevertheless that the Kirchners did push for trial against human rights violators during the dictatorship, although late in that period, in 1983, when its end was already in sight.^[6]
• Kirchnerism has shown itself to be expressly opposed to neoliberal policies. However, while governor of the province of Santa Cruz, Kirchner publicly supported neoliberal president Carlos Menem, endorsing the sale of oil exploration and production company YPF to Repsol, and going as far as claiming that "since the times of that great General (Perón) there hasn't been a president that has listened so much to the southern Patagonia and Santa Cruz in particular."^[7]
• Economically, Kirchnerism has pursued an economic policy of industrialist developmentalism. They don't allow importation of goods that are produced in Argentina to protect local industry and employment.
• Kirchnerism has strongly opposed multilateral and bilateral free trade agreements pursued by the United States. The climax of this policy occurred with the confrontation between Kirchner and George W. Bush at the Mar del Plata Summit of the Americas in 2005, which resulted in Argentina's refusal to sign the FTAA agreement.^[8]
• Internationally, Kirchnerism has strongly supported Mercosur and vice versa, to the point that the president of Mercosur, Carlos Álvarez, is a Kirchnerist.
• One of the most prominent aims of Kirchnerism is to strengthen Argentine relations with the countries of Latin America and to establish a South American economic axis. Recent economic measures posited by Cristina Fernández's government have, nevertheless, hurt Argentina's relationship with these countries, mainly Brazil ^[9] and Uruguay, whose president José "Pepe" Mujica expressed worries regarding Argentina going towards an "autarchist" form of government, and the Kirchnerist economic model "complicating relationships and multiplying difficulties" in bilateral commerce.^[10]
• Kirchnerism, in particular former minister of health Ginés González García, has shown a progressive attitude to birth control and sexuality, including the legalization of same-sex marriage, both of which have provoked the opposition of the Catholic Church and other conservative sectors.^[11] However, these types of legislation have been stopped of late, which the media speculate is the result of Pope Francis, formerly, Jorge Bergoglio, having opposed such laws during his time as Archbishop of Buenos Aires.^[12]

Transversalism

Unlike his predecessor Eduardo Duhalde, Néstor Kirchner was a Peronist but distrusted the Justicialist Party as a support for his government. He proposed instead a "Transversalist" policy, seeking the support of progressive politicians regardless of their party.^[13] Thus, he got support from factions of the PJ, the Radical Civic Union (which were called "Radicales K") and small centre-left parties.

Kirchner neglected the internal politics of the PJ, and kept instead the Front for Victory party, which was initially an electoral alliance in his home province of Santa Cruz, and in the 2003 elections premiered in the federal political scene. Some politicians favored by this policy were Aníbal Ibarra, mayor of Buenos Aires for the Broad Front and supported as Kirchnerist, and Julio Cobos, governor of Mendoza for the UCR and elected as vicepresident of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in 2007.

The Transversalist project was eventually dismissed. Kirchner took control of the PJ, and some "Radicales K" slowly returned to the "Anti-K" faction of their party, most notably vice-president Julio Cobos and Governor of Catamarca province Eduardo Brizuela del Moral; while other very prominent Radical politicians remained in the "K" wing of the Radical Civic Union, such as provincial governors Gerardo Zamora of Santiago del Estero, Ricardo Colombi of Corrientes and Miguel Saiz of Río Negro.

Criticism

Kirchnerism has encountered opposition from various sectors of Argentine society, which tend to criticize its personalism.^[14]

In 2012 there was a massive anti-Kirchnerism protest in several cities within Argentina and also in several Argentinian embassies around the world. It became known as 8N.

In 2015 when Foreign Policy was discussing corruption in Latin America, it was stated that:^[15]

"The viceroys of the colonial era set the pattern. They centralised power and bought the loyalty of local interest groups. [...] Caudillos, dictators and elected presidents continued the tradition of personalising power. Venezuela’s chavismo and the kirchnerismo of Ms Fernández are among today’s manifestations."

In an editorial published in October 2015, The Economist expressed the following view about the situation in Argentina:^[16]

"Argentina needs change. As Ms Fernández slips out of office the economy is starting to crumble. Currency controls and trade restrictions [...] are choking productivity; inflation hovers at around 25%. [...] Argentina cannot seek external financing until it ends its standoff with creditors who rejected a debt-restructuring plan. Unless the new president quickly reverses Ms Fernández’s populist policies, a crisis is inevitable."

In an October 2015 opinion article published by Forbes, Kenneth Rapoza states -- discussing the Argentine general election -- that whatever replaces Kirchnerism "will be a significant improvement for Argentina.".^[17] Philosopher Maximiliano E Korstanje lecturer at University of Palermo, and Fellow at University of Leeds UK, confirmed that "kirchnerites" appeals to "counterfeit politics", to cast a doubt in citizens while militancy does not tolerate doubts in their inner-circles. Doubts not only equal to a sign of weakness but also serve to create a parallel world which does not permeate with reality. The success of Kirchnerism to expand was associated to the manipulation of religious elements to handle with frustrated personalities in a way that makes the belief to "militancy" they are part of an historic revolution. Kirchnerismo found in some personalities or character a fertile ground to flourish, delineating the barrier of magic thought to understand reality. Unless regulated, kirchnerism may very well lead to terrorism.^[18][19][20] In his book Counterfeit Politics, David Kelman professor of California State University at Fullerton, said that "the theory of conspiracy", sometimes is manipulated by populist governments, far from being a pathology of politics, seems to be associated to its core. This new tactic allows enhancing the legitimacy of militants with their leaders at the same time a barrier is delineated to name an external enemy.^[21]

See also

• Conflict between de Kirchner governments and the media
• Public image of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
• La Cámpora
• Plural Consensus
• Argentine nationalism
• Peronism
• Politics of Argentina
• Left-wing populism

Bibliography

• Rosendo Fraga (2010) Fin de ciKlo: ascenso, apogeo y declinación del poder kirchnerista, Buenos Aires, Ediciones B.
• Korstanje M (2012) Estado, Política y Religión. Reflexiones para comprender la Argentina contemporanea (2001-2011). Lap-Lambert Academic Publishing. Saarbrücken, Germany. ISBN 978-3-8473-6379-8

References

External links

• (Spanish) Kirchnerism launches its own syndical movement, Clarín, February 12, 2006
• (Spanish) Practical guide to the complexities of Kirchnerism, by Diego Schurman, Página/12, February 12, 2006
• (Spanish) When and how will Kirchnerism be defeated?, by Mariano Grondona in La Nación, August 26, 2007.
• (Spanish) The battle for common sense: the road to a kirchnerist hegemony? by Raquel San Martín in La Nación, April 18, 2011

Front for Victory
Presidents of Argentina	Néstor Kirchner Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
Member parties	Justicialist Party Broad Front Communist Party of Argentina Humanist Party Radicales K
Party wings	La Cámpora (youth wing)
Related	Kirchnerism