ARGENTINA: Mr Néstor Kirchner, the unknown provincial governor who became Argentina's president-elect this week, has named a conservative cabinet with close ties to the current administration. Mr Kirchner will take office next week with the lowest popular vote of any president in the country's history.
In his first public statement as incoming leader, Mr Kirchner yesterday announced his priority was "to combat poverty, exclusion and disillusionment", referring to the widespread distrust of the political class. "No one can invent a new country in two days," he said, pleading for the people's patience.
Former president Mr Carlos Menem narrowly won the first-round ballot last month with 24 per cent of the vote, just ahead of Mr Kirchner's 22 per cent in a field of 18 candidates.
But Mr Kirchner secured the presidency this week when Mr Menem withdrew from a run-off election because polls showed Mr Kirchner would have won a 70 per cent majority vote, an expression of disgust with Mr Menem rather than an endorsement of his rival's candidacy.
"Mr Kirchner will not so much assume the throne as get strapped to the electric chair," said one gloomy editorial in La Nacion newspaper.
Mr Kirchner yesterday claimed that Mr Menem sent various representatives "to negotiate his impunity" over the past week. The former president still faces charges of corruption and arms trafficking from his previous time in office, between 1989 and 1999.
President-elect Kirchner is due to announce further social welfare schemes for the poor and an 80 per cent increase in the minimum salary, which stands at just 200 pesos a month, about €100.
A public works "megaplan", financed by the World Bank, will provide incomes to thousands of unemployed workers but the release of new funds will be conditional on the acceptance of stringent cutbacks in public spending.
Mr Kirchner will first announce welfare measures before applying the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recipe, which will involve a price hike in basic services and compensation for banks forced to repay dollar loans at the full rate despite a 66 per cent devaluation in the local currency. The IMF will also oblige Argentina to reschedule crippling external debt repayments suspended in the wake of the economic collapse in December 2001.
Mr Kirchner won the qualified support of defeated rival Ms Elisa Carrio who advised her Alternative for a Republic of Equals supporters to vote for "anyone but Menem" in the second round run-off. However, Ms Carrio yesterday criticised Mr Kirchner's ministerial choices, saying there was "nothing new in the cabinet".
Mr Kirchner (53), a lawyer and former governor of the oil-wealthy Santa Cruz province, is regarded as a social democrat within the centre-right Peronist party. The Peronists split three ways over an internal dispute on which candidate would represent the party. Mr Kirchner is regarded as the "lesser evil" because of Mr Menem's tainted 10-year presidency, which saw the introduction of free-market policies now blamed for the economic crisis, the worst in Argentina's 200-year history. During his term, Mr Menem packed the Supreme Court with allies and amended the constitution so he could be re-elected, moves that have fuelled bitter resentment among many Argentinians.
Mr Kirchner promised that he would not be "held captive" by powerful business groups but few doubt the pragmatic new ruler will make a deal with the nation's power brokers to insure his political survival. Argentina's economy is on the ropes, social unrest has turned increasingly aggressive and 60 per cent of people now survive beneath the poverty line - a powder keg ready to explode at any minute.
Mr Menem is a dangerous enemy given his influence in the armed forces, where he pardoned soldiers charged with crimes against humanity committed during military rule between 1976 and 1983.