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New president admires Hillary
30/10/2007 12:08 - (SA)
Buenos Aires - First Lady Cristina Fernandez, in her first televised interview since winning Argentina's presidency, wished Hillary Clinton well in her US election bid and thanked her husband for his role in her triumph at the polls.
Speaking on Argentina's Todo Noticias network on Monday, Fernandez defended President Nestor Kirchner's controversial handling of inflation and the nation's consumer price index and promised to put a priority on creating jobs, boosting exports and bettering health care and education.
Fernandez, a 54-year-old three-term senator, captured 45% of the vote on Sunday, outpacing another woman runner-up, independent Elisa Carrio, by more than 22 percentage points. A dozen other candidates trailed even further back, in an unprecedented race where women took the top two spots.
Fernandez acknowledged in the 40-minute interview that she admired Hillary Clinton and noted frequent comparisons made between the two. Both women are senators and lawyers who accompanied husbands from obscure state governorships as they rose to the presidency.
"I've been with her," Fernandez said, referring to a 2004 meeting with Clinton in Boston that produced a photo of the two locked in big smiles as they met - a staple of her campaign video and website. Another photo there showed her and Kirchner with Bill Clinton last September in New York.
"Everything seems to indicate that she is the favourite of the Americans" in the Democratic primary fight, Fernandez said of Hillary Clinton. "And why not? Another woman wouldn't be bad."
Husband thanked
At one point, Fernandez laughed when the interviewer, Argentine political journalist Joaquin Morales Sola, addressed her as the future "president," and she replied, "I'm still not used to that yet."
Much of her success was due to the accomplishments of Kirchner, who oversaw a recovery from deep financial crisis, reaching growth rates of more than eight percent a year - help she acknowledged.
"Kirchner has been the flagship of this project as the president of all Argentines," she said. "It's very important what President Kirchner has achieved in four-and-a-half years in office and this triumph is part of that."
As his close adviser, she said she was proud to help him as he turned the economy around, and she promised to continue his plans - repeating a central campaign theme.
- AP
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