By Bryan Weiner
Kirchner recently became a grandmother. On July 14th, 2013, Kirchner’s daughter-in-law gave birth to Néstor Iván Kirchner. On social media, she gushed about the fact that she is a proud grandmother and posted pictures of some of the gifts for the baby that she had received from other world leaders. This was a rare moment where she posted something that was related to her family. She has spoken very little about her parents and she has also kept her children under wraps. However, this moment of being a proud grandmother plays into one of the biggest images that she is trying to project of herself: the image of her as the mother (now grandmother) of Argentina. This image plays into a recurring sense of nationalism that has been a large part of her public persona.
Nationalism is of course natural and expected for a president, but what is behind Kirchner’s nationalism and what does this say about her character? Due to the dip in polls and increased problems with the economy, she has increasingly been turning to her roots and trying to evoke the sense of a revolutionary Argentina. This nationalism plays into her image construction that has become such a large part of her public persona. After leaving law school, where she joined the Peronist Youth movement, she moved to Patagonia, a region with strong sentiments about the Falkland Islands, or the Islas Malvinas.
“Las Malvinas son Argentinas” – The Falkland Islands belong to Argentina. Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has proclaimed these words many times during her presidency. This refers to the war that occurred in 1982 when Argentina’s military leaders of the time invaded the British-owned Falkland Islands to reclaim what Argentinians have been claiming as their sovereign territory for more than a century. While this war was lead by the military government that Kirchner was so dramatically opposed to, and the surrender 74 days later helped lead to the downfall of that corrupt and brutal regime, the issue still has been a sticking point for national pride.
Argentinian nationalism is recurring theme in many of Kirchner’s tweets and Facebook posts. Whether she is discussing the Falkland Islands, US Imperialism, or her own political party, she frequently discusses the need for national pride. Her tweets call upon Argentinian youth to step up and take back their country. In her many rants against the newspapers that she accuses of slandering her government, she refers to them as “Argentinians attacking their own countrymen” (Twitter @CFKArgentina 6 Sep. 2013). In her frequent posts about inaugurations, educational and infrastructure projects that her government has been completing, she always specifically mentions how this is building up Argentina and demonstrating pride in the nation. Much of her social media presence has served to reinforce this image of her as the mother of Argentina, chastising those who would dare slander the nation.
Last year, she made statements reopening the conflict with England and again this year she made statement at the UN Security Council asking to sit down with England and discuss the issue. Many have said that this is a “smokescreen to hide the failing economy”. The Argentinian economy is in trouble, which has led to further trouble for her political party, which is down in the polls. By focusing on this image and on a strong nationalistic, Argentinian identity, she is hoping to weather the rough periods ahead. Reinforcing her persona of the mother of Argentina, she can use her role as a leader to attempt to guide the country in the direction that best fits her political ideology. Whether this will be successful or not is yet to be seen.
