Narayan AmmachchiArgentina’s Supreme Court has handed former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner a lifetime ban from holding public office, delivering a seismic blow to the country’s dominant Peronist movement.
The ruling, which confirms her six-year prison sentence in a high-profile corruption case, comes just days after she declared her candidacy for a key legislative seat in Buenos Aires.
This decision effectively removes Kirchner, one of Argentina’s most polarizing political figures, from the electoral landscape. Once hailed as the face of leftist populism, her socialist policies—including heavy subsidies, capital controls, and debt defaults — left Argentina’s economy in crisis and investor sentiment in tatters.
She had returned to power as vice president in 2019, but her second act was marked by further economic turmoil.
Kirchner, 72, is eligible for house arrest and is unlikely to serve any prison time. She called the ruling politically motivated, urging her supporters to mobilize. Protests erupted in Buenos Aires, with highways blocked and tires set ablaze. But analysts say the court’s timing may have been strategic — blocking any attempt to gain immunity before the July deadline for candidate registration.
With her exit, Peronism faces a power vacuum. None of Kirchner’s allies, including her son Máximo or protégé Axel Kicillof, poll close to her. President Javier Milei welcomed the decision, signaling a new chapter for Argentina. Investors, long wary of Kirchner’s economic legacy, may now look to Milei for signs of lasting reform. But the political future of Peronism hangs in the balance.
Kirchner remains one of Argentina’s most recognizable political figures , with 33% approval, far behind Milei’s 50%, according to a recent LatAm Pulse survey conducted by AtlasIntel for Bloomberg News.
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