Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner made history overnight when she was sworn in as Argentina's President - becoming the world's first woman to take over the reins of power from her husband after a democratic election.
After 4 years as first citizen - a term she preferred to first lady - Ms Kirchner became the country's 55th president and Argentina's first democratically elected woman president after her thumping victory over a divided opposition. She garnered 45 per cent of the votes - almost twice as many as her closest rival - in the October election.
Her partner and predecessor, Nestor Kirchner, now becomes the country's first "first gentleman", retaining his place in the presidential residence in the smart Buenos Aires suburb of Olivos and the right to fly in the presidential jet.
Mr Kirchner has not explained why he stepped aside for his wife after his first four-year term as president, but aides insist his wife will not share her office with him.
The Kirchners are both members of the country's populist Peronist movement, founded in the 1940s by Juan Peron. Peron's third wife, Isabel, succeeded him as president - the country's first female leader - for a disastrous 20-month period after his death in 1974, before being ousted in a military coup. But it is Peron's glamorous second wife, "Evita" - who had a formidable influence on her husband's government in the 1940s and 50s - to whom Ms Kirchner is most often compared.
She has also drawn comparisons to US Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton; both are powerful senators who accompanied their small-state governor husbands to the presidency before launching their own bids for their nation's highest office.
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http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22901645-2703,00.html
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