Kirchner Makes Presidential Transition Rough for Macri, Won't Let Presidential Twitter Account Go
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Argentina's president for the last eight years, is making her last official day in office a difficult one for her successor Mauricio Macri.
Top government officials say the 62-year-old left-leaning leader will not attend the swearing in ceremony for the 56-year-old business-friendly mayor of Buenos Aires, Reuters reports.
The animosity between the ideologically opposed politicians is the result of days of disagreement regarding the location of the incoming leader's swearing in ceremony.
Macri wanted to receive the presidential sash and baton in the presidential palace, known as the Casa Rosada, or Pink House. Fernández wanted the swearing-in ceremony to take place in Congress, where her party holds the majority of seats.
Macri took the disagreement over the location of the ceremony to the courts, seeking an injunction to end Fernández's term on Wednesday at midnight. Cabinet Chief Anibal Fernandez told reporters that Macri’s move has made attending the swearing in ceremony impossible for the outgoing leader.
Sergio Berensztein, an Argentine political analyst, said Fernández’s latest refusal to show up at the ceremony shines a light on the kind of reasoning that has been behind the last few years of her administration. “This is much more than a farce; it’s a political strategy to keep Fernandez in the limelight," Berensztein said, according to Bloomberg.
Fernández’s intransigence has extended even to social media. On Tuesday night, the Twitter account for Argentina’s presidential palace changed its profile photo and bio to show new ownership and purpose. The previous bio described @CasaRosadaAR as the official Twitter account of Argentina’s Government House. The new site now reads like a political tribute to what has come to be known as "Kirchnerism."
"Twitter tribute to the presidencies of Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Kirchner [from] May 25, 2003 to Dec. 10, 2015," the new bio reads. "Not official from 10/12/2015."
Macri has expressed his belief that Fernández intends to make the political transition rough for him.
“It seems clear to me that the president does not want to collaborate,” he said, according to The New York Times. “It feels like she’s fueling this idea of: ‘How many new obstacles and problems can I create for the next government?’"
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