Last night, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner distanced herself from constitutional reform during a Q and A forum with students at Harvard University. Her comments came during an uncharacteristically open public address in which the president allowed audience members to ask unscripted questions.
The Head of State was grilled on a number of issues by the animated a hundred-strong audience, including for the first time, the issue of “re-reelection”.
Fernandez assured all those present at the Kennedy School of Government building that “constitutional reform is not the wish of this president”.
“It’s not about what I want, but what I can or must do,” declared the Argentine, with regard to the possibility of introducing constitutional reform, which would allow her to run for a third successive presidential campaign. She confirmed that “it does not depend on me” and is “beyond my wishes”.
The president does not usually allow for questions at her conferences, so many students jumped at the opportunity to quiz her on uncomfortable issues.
One student, who is originally from Argentina, asked Fernández about Argentines’ limited access to foreign capital when they travel abroad and the increased tax they face on credit and debit card purchases.
“You are here and you are Argentine, so obviously you don’t have dollar problems,” retorted the president. “You are lucky enough to study in Harvard. Do you think you can really talk about these currency problems?”
Argentina’s head of state also spoke about the global economic crisis and stated “the core of the international crisis was that they went from a production economy to believe that money could be reproduced by money.”
Fernandez began her visit to the US five days ago and spoke in front of the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday. She was due to return to Buenos Aires this morning.
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