Uruguayan ex-president José Mujica admits that he had expressed himself "rudely" about Argentina’s Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in a recent interview in which he criticised her for not making room for new generations.
However, Mujica, 89, insisted on the need to renew Peronism – the point he was trying to emphasise with his previous remarks.
His terminology was "not at all diplomatic" and "rude," recognised Mujica to the Uruguayan newspaper La Diaria.
In his interview with AFP, he said that Fernández de Kirchner, who served two terms as head of state from 2007 to 2015 and later returned as vice-president from 2019, 2023, had failed to step aside for new leaders in her political movement.
"There’s the old [Fernández de] Kirchner in Argentina, at the head of Peronism. Instead of being an elderly mentor and leaving new generations to it, no, she goes screwing around. How difficult it is for her to let the pie go! What a bitch!" Mujica said in the November 29 interview with AFP.
The ex-president (2010-15) and former guerrilla, now converted into a referential figure for the international left, pointed out to La Diaria his respect for Fernández de Kirchner, whom he considered "a phenomenon" with "a tremendous subliminal weight" and "an admirable and exceptional woman."
Nevertheless, he reiterated that Peronism has to be renovated for a new generation.
"I think that the great referential figures, and there is none greater within Peronism than Mrs Cristina [Fernández de] Kirchner, should use their power to dive, seek and push the processing of new generations," he underlined.
Mujica’s statements about the Argentine leader produced repercussions in the media but the ex-president told La Diaria that "they haven’t said anything" because they know his manner of direct talk.
In April, 2013, when he was President of Uruguay, another Mujica comment about Fernández de Kirchner also made waves.
"That old woman is worse than the one-eyed one, who was more political while she is more stubborn," said Mujica at a meeting in Uruguay without realising that he had an open microphone in front of him.
He was referring to his then Argentine counterpart and to her husband, the late ex-president Néstor Kirchner.
– TIMES/AFP
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