Argentine premier backs wife as successor

ARGENTINA:Argentina's president Néstor Kirchner has indicated he will not stand for a second term in office and will instead back his wife, senator Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, as the ruling bloc's candidate in October's presidential election.

The announcement, made on Sunday to Argentina's national news agency, ends years of speculation about a possible Cristina candidacy.

Mrs Kirchner will seek to become the first woman elected president of Argentina. Neither Kirchner has yet commented on the decision, and Cristina's campaign will not officially launch until July 19th in her home city of La Plata.

The Kirchners lead the main left-wing faction of the Peronist party, founded by dictator Juan Domingo Peron. Peron's third wife, Isabel Peron, succeeded him to become the country's first woman president on his death in 1974. She ruled for a disastrous 21 months during which rival Marxist and fascist groups - all claiming to be Peronist - fought each other in what became known as Argentina's Years of Lead. Isabel was overthrown in 1976 by a military coup.

Mr Kirchner came to power in 2003 amid the fallout of the country's disastrous economic crash in 2001. His tough stance with foreign creditors together with breakneck economic growth in each of his four years in charge have made him Argentina's most popular politician. Polls show he would have romped to a second term had he decided to stand, despite a recent drop in support following power shortages and a corruption scandal.

The opposition was quick to claim that by selecting the less popular Mrs Kirchner, the government had breathed new life into a race that had looked a foregone conclusion. "It is clear that Cristina is a weaker candidate. This announcement is good news for the opposition," said Gerardo Morales, the vice-presidential candidate on one of the main opposition tickets. But while polls show Mrs Kirchner is not as popular as her husband, they still show she would see off all rivals from the fragmented and divided opposition.

The Kirchners met in law school and married in 1975. While he built his career as an obscure provincial politician in Patagonia, Mrs Kirchner enjoyed a national profile as a senator representing the province of Santa Cruz.

She has built a reputation as one of the senate's toughest operators and is the leading and most articulate member of the small circle around the president. In 2005, Cristina took on and in a vicious campaign defeated the wife of her husband's Peronist predecessor and main rival for the senate seat of Buenos Aires province.

The plans of the Kirchners have obsessed Buenos Aires's chattering classes since the chaos that followed the 2001 crash catapulted the politically unknown Patagonian into the presidency in 2003.

Very early during his term in office, supporters began floating the idea of Cristina running in his place in 2007. Opponents claim this demonstrated they planned on alternating the office of president between them in order to create a Kirchner dynasty until well into the next decade.

Interior minister Aníbal Fernández said Mr Kirchner would devote himself to building a "modern political party" once he left office in December. The Kirchners' ruling coalition is made up of loyal elements from the Peronist party as well as sectors of the opposition.

For decades the largest political movement in Argentina, the Peronists are divided into rival factions and loyalty to regional personalities constantly undermines central control.

During their four years in power, the Kirchners' bitterest political struggles have been with rival Peronists, some of whom are allied with opposition candidates in an attempt to defeat Cristina in October's vote.