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Argentina's 28 October 2007 presidential election contrasted sharply with the one that preceded it. The 2003 race took place in the aftermath of an unprecedented economic collapse and the massive December 2001 protests that toppled two presidents in a span of ten days. That election which was won by little-known (Peronist) Justicialist Party governor Nestor Kirchner was held in a climate of political fragmentation and uncertainty. Little uncertainty surrounded the 2007 campaign. After four years of strong economic growth, and with the opposition in shambles, a victory by the incumbent Peronists was a foregone conclusion. The only surprise was that Kirchner, who remained popular, chose not to seek reelection. Instead, his wife, Senator Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, ran in his place.
Cristina Kirchner captured 45 percent of the vote, easily defeating Elisa Carrio of the left-of-center Civic Coalition (23 percent) and Kirchner's former economics minister, Roberto Lavagna (17 percent), who was backed by the Radical Civic Union (UCR). In addition to winning more than three-quarters of Argentina's 23 governorships, the Justicialist Party (PJ) and other pro-Kirchner allies won large majorities in both legislative chambers. In the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Argentina's bicameral National Congress, progovernment Peronists and other Kirchner allies (including pro-Kirchner Radicals) won 160 of 257 seats, while dissident Peronists won another 10 seats. The loosely organized Civic Coalition won 31 seats, while the UCR won 30 seats. In the Senate, the Kirchnerista forces controlled 47 of 74 seats after the election, while another 5 seats were held by dissident Peronists. The PJ thus emerged from the election in a dominant position. Opposition forces were split into at least three blocs (the UCR, the Civic Coalition, and the center-right Republican Proposal [PRO]), and thus posed no serious challenge. Indeed, future challenges seemed more likely to come from within the PJ.
Cristina Kirchner is the first woman ever to be elected president of Argentina. (Isabel Peron, who had been elected vice-president as her husband Juan Peron's running mate in 1973, succeeded to the presidency upon his death the following year.) Kirchner's success, however, was rooted not in her gender-she performed better among men than among women but in her status as the candidate of a successful incumbent government.
Nestor Kirchner left office...