By Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, May 26 2003 (IPS)

Argentina’s new president, Néstor Kirchner, gained a reputation as a talented administrator of a southern province with a population of just 220,000, and until recently was unfamiliar to most of the country’s 37 million people.

But those who know him say Kirchner, who was governor of the province of Santa Cruz in Argentina’s southern Patagonia region until last week, is a persevering man who has great skill in consolidating a power base through consensus-building.

Kirchner’s great-grandparents were Swiss and German pioneers who emigrated to Patagonia when that remote region swept by the icy winds from the South was only inhabited by indigenous communities.

The new president, who was sworn in on Sunday, was born in 1950 in Rio Gallegos, the Santa Cruz provincial capital, located more than 2,000 kms south of Buenos Aires.

He studied law in the late 1960s and early 1970s at the state- run University of La Plata in Rio Gallegos, and became active in the left wing of the Justicialista (Peronist) Party, where he met his wife, Cristina Fernández, who is today a senator.

Kirchner was never a member of the Montoneros, the now-defunct Peronist guerrilla organisation, as his rival Carlos Menem claimed in an attempt to hurt his image. He belonged to the Peronist Youth, and when the country returned to democracy after the 1976- 1983 military dictatorship, he became one of the centre-left leaders in the Justicialista Party.

Although Kirchner took just 22 percent of the vote in the first round of elections in April, he was expected to win a strong popular mandate of at least 70 percent in the May 18 run-off, which was cancelled when former president Menem (1989-1999), his adversary, withdrew from the race.

Kirchner has never hesitated to criticise the most conservative sectors of his party, especially when they took measures that ran counter to human rights concerns, like Menem’s pardon of the former members of the military junta that ruled the country for seven years.

The fierce repression unleashed by the 1976 coup d’etat forced Kirchner to return to Rio Gallegos, and to temporarily abandon political activism. He began to exercise his profession in a private practice with his wife, who is also an attorney.

Through their law practice and property investments, the couple built up a modest fortune. Kirchner’s family and friends say he is more inclined to save than to spend.

Some critics have raised the question of whether owning 22 real estate properties is not excessive for a lawyer, even a successful one.

But the president-elect responded that his family is one of the few in Argentina to declare all of their assets to the tax office, which is why they may look wealthier than others in this country where tax evasion is so widespread.

In stark contrast with other Argentine leaders, most notably Menem, Kirchner has never been accused of corruption in his 16- year political career. Nor have his closest associates and subordinates.

When democracy was restored, Kirchner left his private law practice and returned to politics. Although he was elected mayor of Rio Gallegos in 1987 by a tiny margin, he quickly gained popularity through an efficient and austere administration.

His success encouraged him to run for governor of Santa Cruz in 1991, a post he won with just 30 percent of the vote. In 1995 he was reelected with 62 percent support.

But in 1999, after he pushed through a controversial reform of the provincial constitution that made it possible for him to run for a third consecutive term, that share had dropped to 50 percent.

According to Rubén Zárate, a public policy researcher at the National University of Southern Patagonia, Kirchner enjoys walking among his voters, and is an honest leader, although ”he could greatly improve the quality of the institutions of government if he acted with greater transparency” and concentrated power in his own hands a bit less.

But, the analyst added, ”he is capable of building a power base, starting from a weak position, through consensus-building.”

A political scientist who worked closely with Kirchner told IPS that the new president is ”distrustful” by nature, and very focused on building a power structure that will support him.

”He is capable of listening to those who think differently, but he does not like other people to make decisions for him,” he added.

José Grecco, an unemployed professional who is the same age as Kirchner, 53, remarked to IPS that ”I am somewhat hopeful and moderately optimistic.

”It would be great to move towards becoming the country that we once were, and at least for now, I’m pleased with the views that Kirchner has expressed,” he added.

”My enthusiasm was boosted by the fact that he drove ‘the cancer of Menem’ into remission, by the dream of thinking that Kirchner is a survivor of the Peronist Youth (a group that had progressive ideals), and because he comes from Patagonia,” said Grecco, who lived in that region for two decades.

Besides criticism of the amendment of the provincial constitution that allowed Kirchner to stand for a third term as governor, his detractors questioned his decision to expand the Santa Cruz Supreme Court. Menem had done the same at a national level, and packed the country’s highest court with judges of his own choosing.

Kirchner also came under fire for placing around 500 million dollars of the province’s reserves – Santa Cruz’s share of the funds brought in by the privatisation of the YPF oil company during Menem’s first term as president – in banks in Switzerland and Luxembourg.

Opponents accused Kirchner of being ”unpatriotic” when he placed those funds abroad. But most people in Santa Cruz are grateful for that decision, which kept the province’s money safe from the freeze on deposits declared when Argentina’s banking system and economy collapsed in December 2001.

The people of Santa Cruz saw their living standards improve significantly under Kirchner.

When he took office as governor in 1991, he inherited a four- month delay in the payment of civil servants’ salaries. Not only did his administration pay off the back wages, but Santa Cruz became the province where public employees earn the highest salaries.

Teachers in Santa Cruz earn 600 pesos a month – nearly twice the salary paid to teachers in other provinces – as well as a 250 peso bonus for good attendance. Furthermore, the schools in the province are well-equipped.

Unlike the rest of Argentina, schools in Santa Cruz do not need to provide free lunches to low-income children, because the poverty and unemployment rates are so low.

The Artemio López polling company reported that Santa Cruz has the best distribution of wealth in the country, and the lowest proportion of poor, after the city of Buenos Aires proper. Unemployment in Santa Cruz stands at a mere three percent, compared to an official national rate of 17.4 percent, which non- governmental organisations call overly conservative.

Kirchner’s critics argue that there is little merit to being able to boast strong economic and social indicators in a province rich in resources like oil and coal.

But his advocates retort that equally rich provinces are facing severe unemployment and other social problems. They also point out that previous Santa Cruz administrations governed the same province with the same resources, but failed to improve local residents’ quality of life.

After balancing the province’s accounts, Kirchner launched an ambitious housing plan, which included a programme of long-term mortgages, and build bridges, roads, ports and airports. Santa Cruz’s hospitals are modern and well-equipped, and medicine is provided free of charge.

Last week, Kirchner gave interviews to local and foreign reporters in his province, in order to show the world his favourite place: the Perito Moreno glacier in the Andes mountains.

Argentines hope their new leader will pull the country out of its worst crisis ever, and successfully fight poverty, which now affects more than 50 percent of the population, unemployment, sky- high foreign debt and rampant corruption.

But pollster Graciela Romer pointed out to IPS that ”Argentines have a realistic view of how things stand, and although they know what they want, they understand how difficult it will be to bring that about.”

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