President Cristina Fernandez has been re-elected with one of the widest victory margins in Argentine history by persuading voters that she alone, even without her late powerbroker husband, is best able to keep spreading the wealth of an economic boom.
Fernandez had nearly 54 percent of the votes cast in
Sunday's election, with nearly 97 percent of polling stations reporting
nationwide. Her nearest challenger got just under 17 percent.
"We need everyone to comprehend ... that because of
the popular will and this political decision, you can count on me to continue
deepening this national project for the 40 million Argentines," she vowed
in her victory speeches, first before hundreds and then thousands of supporters
Sunday night.
The goal of this "project" is to profoundly
change society by using Argentina's resources to raise incomes, create jobs,
restore the country's industrial capacity, reduce poverty and maintain an
economic boom that has seen the country grow and reduce poverty.
Since she and her predecessor as president, husband
Nestor Kirchner, first moved into Argentina's presidential palace in 2003, the
income gap between the country's rich and poor has been reduced by nearly half.
Meanwhile, according to the International Monetary Fund's numbers for
2002-2011, Argentina's real GDP has grown 94 percent, the fastest in the
Western Hemisphere and about twice the rate of Brazil, which also has grown
substantially, economist Mark Weisbrot said.
U.S. President Barack "Obama could take a lesson
from this," said Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and
Policy Research in Washington. "It's an old-fashioned message of
democracy: You deliver what you promise and people vote for you. It's kind of
forgotten here in the U.S."
Fernandez noted that she is Latin America's first woman
to be re-elected as president, but described the victory as bittersweet, since
Kirchner, who died of a heart attack last Oct. 27, wasn't there to share it.
"This man who transformed Argentina led us all and
gave everything he had and more," she said. "Without him, without his
valor and courage, it would have been impossible to get to this point."
Thousands of jubilant, flag-waving people crowded into
the capital's historic Plaza de Mayo to watch on a huge TV screen as she spoke
from a downtown hotel, where her supporters interrupted so frequently with
their chants that she lectured them as a mother would her children: "The
worst that people can be is small. In history, you always must be bigger still
- more generous, more thoughtful, more thankful."
Then, she showed her teeth, vowing to protect Argentina
from outside threats or special interests.
"This woman isn't moved by any interest. The only
thing that moves her is profound love for the country. Of that I'm responsible,"
Fernandez said.
Later, she appeared in the plaza as well, giving a
rousing, second victory speech, her amplified voice echoing through the capital
as she called on Argentina's youth to dedicate themselves to social projects
nationwide.
Fernandez was on track to win a larger share of votes
than any president since Argentina's democracy was restored in 1983, when Raul
Alfonsin was elected with 52 percent.
Her 36-point-plus lead over Gov. Hermes Binner, who
finished second, was wider than any in history save the 1973 victory of her
strongman hero, Juan Domingo Peron - if you count, as many Peronists do, both
the 30-point margin he won on the Peronist ticket with his wife Isabel and an
additional 7 percent Peron won on a second ticket with a different vice presidential
candidate, said Leandro Morganfield, a historian at the University of Buenos
Aires.
Fernandez's political coalition also appeared to gain
strength in Congress, where it will need to form new alliances to regain the
control it lost in 2009. At play were 130 seats in the lower house and 24 in
the Senate. Most of the nine governor's races contested Sunday also went to her
party.
Fernandez overcame high negative ratings early in her
presidency by softening her usually combative tone and proving her ability to
command loyalty or respect from an unruly political elite. But she also did it
by persuading voters that she will stay the course she and her husband began
taking eight years ago.
Fernandez, 58, chose her 48-year-old, guitar-playing,
hoodie-wearing economy minister, Amado Boudou, as her running mate and
potential successor.
Together, they have championed an Argentine solution to
countries facing a debt crisis: nationalize private pensions and use central
bank reserves to increase government spending rather than impose austerity
measures, and force bondholders to suffer before ordinary citizens.
The candidates debated over how prepared Argentina is for
a global slowdown. Declining commodity and trade revenue will make it harder to
raise incomes to keep up with inflation. Argentina's central bank is under
pressure to spend reserves to maintain the peso's value against the dollar,
while also guarding against currency shocks that could threaten Argentina's
all-important trade with Brazil.
Fernandez's opposition accused her of failing to contain
inflation and crime, of manipulating economic data and using government power
to quell criticism.
But most voters didn't seem to care. When Fernandez is
inaugurated Dec. 10, her Front for Victory coalition will become the first
political bloc to begin a third consecutive presidential term since 1928, when
President Hipolito Yrigoyen of the Radical Civic Union took office, only to be
toppled by a military coup two years later, Morganfield said.
Fernandez said "we have to think of a different
country, where whoever comes builds on top of what's already been done. That's
the Argentina I dream of, where we have continuity of national political
projects for the country."
**Michael Warren can be reached at
http://www.twitter.com/mwarrenap