BUENOS AIRES: Argentina’s former leftist president Cristina Kirchner said Monday she will run for a provincial legislative seat, which would grant her immunity as she fights a corruption conviction. Kirchner, 72, was sentenced to six years imprisonment in 2022 for fraud in the awarding of tenders for public works during her 2007-2015 presidency.The Supreme Court is considering her appeal, which also targets a ban on her holding public office.Kirchner rose to prominence as part of a political power couple with her late husband Nestor Kirchner, who preceded her as president between 2003 and 2007.After two terms as president she served as vice-president from 2019 to 2023, in the last center-left administration before libertarian President Javier Milei took power. In a television interview Monday, Kirchner said she would seek a seat in the Buenos Aires provincial legislature in elections in September. “I am going to run, as I said in many meetings,” Kirchner said on the TV station C5N.She said the election was important for her Peronist party, the main force opposing Milei, to build momentum as Argentina girds for nationwide legislative elections in October.If she wins a seat, Kirchner would gain immunity that could protect her in the court cases against her, like the fraud conviction.This will be the first time she has run for office since she left her post as vice president in 2023.Milei campaigned as a cost-cutting, anti-establishment antidote to Kirchner’s Peronist movement, which was accused of widespread corruption and economic mismanagement.She has been a staunch opponent of his policies of deregulation and slashing public spending.
