The final stretch of the electoral campaign for the legislative elections in Argentina will not have one of its protagonists, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, in the front line. The former head of state and current vice president underwent successful gynecological surgery at a clinic in Buenos Aires. The operation will force it to rest in the coming days, in which the ruling coalition seeks to recover votes by November 14 to reverse, or at least reduce, the poor result of the September primary elections.
Fernández de Kirchner underwent a hysterectomy, which consists of the removal of the uterus, ovaries and fallopian tubes. The surgical intervention was scheduled after having detected an endometrial polyp, according to medical sources cited by the local press, but it took the public by surprise by being kept secret until a few hours before.
“The patient undergoes a normal post-operative period, in good general health,” explained the Otamendi clinic in a statement released this morning. The vice president must remain hospitalized for at least three more days and once she is discharged, she can gradually return to her activities.
The mother of the former president, Ofelia Wilhelm, underwent the same operation in 2014 at the same medical center in Buenos Aires. For Fernández de Kirchner it is his third surgery: in 2012, at the start of his second presidency, his thyroid gland was removed and a year later he underwent surgery for a subdural hematoma.
Fernández de Kirchner, at the head of the largest Peronist current within the government coalition, took on the electoral campaign in the September primaries. His medical leave will now leave the president, Alberto Fernández, and the provincial governors who accompany the candidates of the Frente de Todos (FdT) to Congress. The Peronist coalition postponed its closing ceremony for five days to try to have its presence in the leaders’ box and compete that same day with the rally of the main opposition party, Together for Change (JxC).
The vice president will have in her hand the post-operative letter in case she decides to be absent from the scenario of defeat predicted by the polls on November 14. All the polls foresee that the opposition will revalidate the victory obtained in the primaries at the national level and also in the large electoral districts of the country, including the province of Buenos Aires, the main Peronist stronghold.
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In the elections, half of the Chamber of Deputies and a third of the Senate will be renewed. If the results of the primaries were repeated – in which JxC surpassed the FdT by almost ten points – Peronism would become the second minority in the Lower House and in the Upper House it would lose the ability to call sessions without the need for alliances with other parties. .
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