13th Oct 2007
The new Evita
This week’s edition of Time Magazine carries a profile of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, first Lady of Argentina, Senator and if the polls are true its next President. She appears to have captured the public’s imagination in a way Eva Peron did decades ago and will beat Hillary Clinton in the succeed your spouse stakes for the Pink House (in the Latin World everything doesn’t have to be just black or white!).
Dona Cristina is a smart cookie and some politician. She cut her teeth in the newly democratic Argentina with a progressive oratory and responsible economics. Her husband, the current President Kirchner, can claim the credit for having steered his country out of the economic crisis of five years ago. Polling day, Oct 28th. O’Conall St will bring you the result.
Keeping to the Latin theme, as some of you will know I grew up in the South of Spain where food is king, woman are worshipped and football is more important than life or death. You can imagine how my heart sank this week when ETA continued its pointless war with the attempted murder of a socialist politician’s bodyguard. I owe my education, my politics and my optimism to Spain. And Spain is not a ‘nation’ but a constitutional settlement between several nations. That’s the glue that binds the Andalucian’s with one foot in North Africa with the Northern celts just a boat ride away from ourselves in Ireland. Basque nationalism is a proud tradition and Basque autonomy is a central part of modern Spain. The violence of ETA is as pointless as our’s was. In an increasingly post nationalist world, ETA stand for the past and the people of Euskadi came onto the streets in their thousands on Wednesday to protest against ETA, as they have done for nearly thirty years, to remind them of just that. A proud nation, they will never give in to the men of violence.
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