Former cabinet chief to Cristina Fernández de Kirchner during her presidency, Alberto Fernández, is positioning himself as the spokesman for the former president's possible run presidential candidacy, hitting the airwaves throughout the week in her defence.
Fernández, who spent much of the past four years criticising Fernández de Kirchner for alleged corruption and mismanagement as an ally of the opposition Renewal Front led by Sergio Massa, on Tuesday said "Cristina Kirchner is the best candidate" to defeat President Mauricio Macri in October.
Fernández insisted she would not announce her candidacy, if she decides to run, until the election campaign official begins and claimed Fernández de Kirchner was "doubtful" about the idea "because of her personal situation".
"Florencia Kirchner is the hostage that Macri and the Judiciary use to condition Cristina", he claimed, in an extensive interview with the Corea del Centro programme on Net TV. Florencia Kirchner stands accused of money laundering alongside her mother. Allies of the former president claim the accusations against Florencia are part of a no-holds-barred attempt to destroy Fernández de Kirchner and her movement.
"Her judicial situation is nothing to worry about", he claimed, just hours before the Supreme Court put the brakes on the first of a series of criminal trials into Fernández de Kirchner's time as president.
On Thursday, Fernández again hit the air waves, telling Futurock radio that he hoped the Supreme Court's demand that the presiding lower criminal court demonstrate that it has sufficient evidence to try Fernández de Kirchner "serves as a mirror for the rest of the other cases" against her.
Fernández de Kirchner "would have lamented going to an oral trial in these conditions because it is an entirely tainted case", he said.
ON CORRUPTION
The former president faces a number of criminal trials and investigations into the alleged embezzlement of funds tied to public works contracts, as well as other into alleged money laundering of public funds through the Kirchner family's hotel businesses.
"I'm not denying there was corruption" during the Kirchner presidencies, Alberto Fernández said Tuesday.
However, he claimed the courts were favouring President Macri's political agenda by "trying to incriminate Cristina".
He downplayed accusations that Kirchner-era corruption and incompetency led to the 2012 Once train tragedy which killed 51 people.
"It is possible that funds destined to maintain those trains were diverted", he confessed. However, in line with the Kirchner movement's argument about the incident that the train driver was ultimately responsible, he described Once as " a tragedy involving someone driving a train".
-TIMES/PERFIL
Comments