Argentina's President Defends Presidential System "Copied Exactly from the U.S."

President Cristina Fernande de Kirchner defended Argentina's Presidential system, "copied exactly from the United States Constitution," against those who would establish a parliamentary system in the country, and who are trying to force her government to either default on its debt obligations, or savagely slash productive government spending in order to make those debt payments.

In a speech before producers in an agricultural region on March 3, two days after her hour-long discussion with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Fernandez forcefully went after "the evident attempted destitution [of the government] by some national sectors"—she failed to mention the international sectors involved, i.e., the British Empire—who have gotten judges "who seem to have been rented" to block her attempt to put Central Bank reserves under the control of the government, and to use part of those reserves to establish a Bicentennial Fund with which to meet foreign debt obligations.

She blasted those who indebted the country in the 1980s and 1990s, and who now turn around to try to stop her from paying those debts "with the reserves of the Central Bank," demanding instead that she cut the operating budget. "I want them to tell me how, paying the way they propose, we are going to be able to keep paying retirees their two increases per year, how we will be able to keep paying family benefits, how we will be able to continue with an infrastructure plan like the one we are announcing today."

"I am prepared to face the condemnation of any circumstantial Argentine judge, but I am not prepared to face the condemnation of history," she stated. And then she took off the gloves on the issue of principle involving the Presidential system:

"I know that the Argentine Republic has a Presidential system, there is no co-government with the opposition, it is not a parliamentary government. You can agree or disagree with this system of government that we have copied exactly from the United States Constitution; but if you disagree, what you have to do is not violate it, but change the Constitution and put in place a parliamentary government, for example. So, if we had a parliamentary government, if we were to ask this opposition for a proposal, what would they say to me? Some would say to not pay the debt and to investigate it; others, to pay it with an adjustment plan; and, then, what country would we have?"