Alberto Fernández

Alberto Fernández has developed close ties with China and visited Beijing during the 2022 Winter Olympics, where China expressed support for Argentina's sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands.

In January 2022, Fernández was elected president pro tempore of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), succeeding Mexico's Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

In December 2022, Fernandez sparked a battle with the Supreme Court of Argentina and a legal crisis after he said he would reject a ruling it made to give a larger proportion of state funds to the city of Buenos Aires. In a ruling the Supreme Court said the level of funds to Buenos Aires should be raised from 1.4% of the total pool of funds to 2.95% after it was cut by government decree during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. He said the ruling was unjustified and pledged to ignore it; "it is an unprecedented, incongruous, and impossible-to-enforce ruling," calling the decision politically motivated ahead of general elections next year and adding that it would hurt the other provinces. His remarks sparked off a backlash, with critics saying the rejection of a Supreme Court decision set a dangerous precedent and undermined the justice system, while several provincial governors sided with Fernandez and criticized the court ruling. Buenos Aires city mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, criticized the declaration of Fernandez, saying; "the president decided to break the constitutional order, completely violate the rule of law and attack democracy." Various industry groups criticized the move as dangerous to the rule of law.

On 20 July 2021, Fernández signed another Necessity and Urgency Decree (Decreto 476/2021) mandating the National Registry of Persons (RENAPER) to allow a third gender option on all national identity cards and passports, marked as an "X". The measure applies to non-citizen permanent residents who possess Argentine identity cards as well. In compliance with the 2012 Gender Identity Law, this made Argentina one of the few countries in the world to legally recognize non-binary gender on all official documentation.

On 21 January 2021, Fernández became the first Latin American leader to be inoculated against the disease via the recently approved Gam-COVID-Vac (better known as Sputnik V). On 7 December 2021, Fernández received his booster dose of the vaccine.

Ginés González García was forced to resign as Health Minister on 19 February 2021 after it was revealed he provided preferential treatment for the COVID-19 vaccine to his close friends, including journalist Horacio Verbitsky and other political figures. He was succeeded by the second in charge Carla Vizzotti. The revelation was met with wide national condemnation from supporters and opposition, as Argentina had at the time received only 1,5 million doses of vaccine for its population of 40 million.

Fernández tested positive for the COVID-19 on 2 April 2021 having a "light fever".

On 22 March 2021, Fernández was elected by the national congress of the Justicialist Party as the party's new national chairman, succeeding José Luis Gioja. Fernández ran unopposed, heading the Unidad y Federalismo list, which received the support of diverse sectors in the Peronist movement, including La Cámpora.

Confirming the trend of that year's primary elections, the Frente de Todos suffered major losses in the November 2021 legislative elections. The FDT lost its majority in the Senate (the first time in nearly 40 years that Peronists lost control of the upper house), and the opposition Juntos por el Cambio coalition gained the upper hand in traditional peronist strongholds, such as La Pampa and Santa Cruz. Observers attributed the loss to the widespread anger over high inflation and rising poverty. The reduced pluralities in both houses of Congress meaning the government will now have to engage in negotiations to pass any initiative requiring legislative approval.

On 9 June 2021, Alberto Fernández was at a meeting with business leaders alongside Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez at the Casa Rosada. When he sought to play up the Argentinian ties with Europe, he said "The Mexicans came from the Indians, the Brazilians came from the jungle, but we Argentines came from the ships. And they were ships that came from Europe." Fernández erroneously attributed the quote to the Mexican poet, essayist and diplomat Octavio Paz, although it had originated from lyrics by local musician and personal friend Litto Nebbia. Faced with the negative backlash to his comments, on the same day Fernández apologized on Twitter and the next day sent a letter to the director of the National Institute Against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism (INADI), clarifying his comments.

In August 2021, it was revealed that there had been numerous visits to the presidential palace during the lockdown that he had imposed in early 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic; visitors included an actress, a dog trainer, and a hairdresser, as well as hosting a birthday party for the First Lady.

Since 2014, Fernández has been in a relationship with journalist and stage actress Fabiola Yáñez, who has fulfilled the role of First Lady of Argentina since Fernández's presidency began. The couple own three dogs: Dylan (named after Bob Dylan, whom Fernández has praised and cited as an inspiration) and two of Dylan's puppies, Prócer and Kaila. On 23 September 2021, the presidential office's medical unit announced Yáñez was expecting her first child. Yáñez and Fernández's son, Francisco Fernández Yáñez, was born on 11 April 2022 at Sanatorio Otamendi, in Buenos Aires.

Argentina defaulted again on May 22, 2020 by failing to pay $500 million on its due date to its creditors. Negotiations for the restructuring of $66 billion of its debt continue.

The International Monetary Fund reported that the COVID-19 crisis would plunge Argentina's GDP by 9.9 percent, after the country's economy contracted by 5.4 percent in first quarter of 2020, with unemployment rising over 10.4 percent in the first three months of the year, before the lockdown started.

On September 22, as part of the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, official reports showed a 19% year-on-year drop in the GDP for the second quarter of 2020, the biggest drop in the country's history. Investment went down 38% from the previous year. The poverty rate rose to 42% in the second half of 2020, the highest since 2004. Child poverty reached the 57.7% of minors of 14 years.

On 4 September 2020, Fernández signed a Necessity and Urgency Decree (Decreto 721/2020) establishing a 1% employment quota for trans and travesti people in the national public sector. The measure had been previously debated in the Chamber of Deputies as various prospective bills. The decree mandates that at any given point, at least 1% of all public sector workers in the national government must be transgender, as understood in the 2012 Gender Identity Law.

On 12 November 2020 Fernández signed a decree legalizing the self-cultivation and regulating the sales and subsidized access of medical cannabis, expanding upon a 2017 bill that legalized the use and research of the plant and its derivatives. In June 2019, during his presidential campaign, he had signaled his intention to legalize marijuana for recreational purposes, but not other types of drugs.

During his administration, Argentina's relationship with Brazil has become somewhat strained. Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro refused to attend Fernández's inauguration, accusing him of wanting to create a "great Bolivarian homeland" on the border and of preparing to provoke a flight of capital and companies into Brazil. Fernández and Bolsonaro had their first conversation through a video conference on 30 November 2020, during which both presidents agreed on the importance of cooperation and the role of Mercosur.

Under Fernández, Argentina has retired in the Lima Group formed by North and South American nations to address the crisis in Venezuela, after not subscribing to any of the Group's statements and resolutions. Argentina voted in favor of the United Nations resolution to back the continuity of the UN Human Rights Office report on human rights violations in Venezuela. Under Fernández, Argentina withdrew recognition of Juan Guaidó as interim President of Venezuela. In January 2020, the Fernández administration revoked Elisa Trotta Gamus credentials, who was Guaidó's envoy to Argentina and whose representation had been approved by the Macri administration. However, Fernández also refused to recognize Maduro's envoy Stella Lugo's credentials and Foreign Minister Felipe Solá asked her to return to Caracas.

Alberto Fernández questioned the conclusions the Organization of American States that the reelection of Evo Morales was unconstitutional for electoral fraud. Fernández's government recognized Morales as the legitimate President of Bolivia, and granted him asylum in Argentina in December 2019. On 9 November 2020, with Luis Arce's victory in 2020, Fernández personally accompanied Morales to the Argentine border with Bolivia, wherein the two leaders held a public act celebrating Morales's return to his home country.

In January 2020, Fernández traveled to Israel for his first presidential trip abroad. There he paid respects to the victims of the Holocaust and maintained a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who thanked him for keeping Hezbollah branded as a terrorist organization, a measure taken by former President Mauricio Macri.

Regarding Argentina's strained relations with Iran, Fernández publicly defended the Memorandum of understanding between Argentina and Iran, although critical of this prior to taking office. In September 2020, Fernández asked Iran before the UN General Assembly to "cooperate with the Argentine justice" to bring justice to the cause and extradite those Iranian officials who stand accused of the attack. He further stated that if the officials were to be found innocent, "they could freely return to Iran or otherwise face the consequences for their actions."

Responses to the outbreak have included restrictions on commerce and movement, closure of borders, and the closure of schools and educational institutions. The announcement of the lockdown was generally well received, although there were concerns with its economic impact in the already delicate state of Argentina's economy, with analysts predicting at least 3% GDP decrease in 2020. Fernandez later announced a 700 billion pesos (US$11.1 billion) stimulus package, worth 2% of the country's GDP. After announced a mandatory quarantine to every person that returned to Argentina from highly affected countries, the government closed its borders, ports, and suspended flights.

Due to the national lockdown, the economic activity suffered a collapse of nearly 10% in March 2020 according to a consultant firm. The highest drop was of the construction sector (32%) versus March 2019. Every economic sector suffered a collapse, with finance, commerce, manufacturing industry and mining being the most affected. The agriculture sector was the least affected, but overall the economic activity for the first trimester of 2020 accumulates a 5% contraction. It is expected that the extension of the lockdown beyond April would increase the collapse of the Argentinian economy. In March, the primary fiscal deficit jumped to US$1,394 million, an 857% increase year-to-year. This was due to the public spending to combat the pandemic and the drop in tax collection due to low activity in a context of social isolation. Schools were closed for over a year, and it is estimated that 1.5 million of kids abandoned school, 13% of the total.

On September 3, despite most local governments still enforcing strict lockdown measures, Fernández stated that "there is no lockdown", and that such thoughts had "been instilled by the opposition", as part of a political agenda. Fernández eased some lockdown measures in the Greater Buenos Aires on November 6, 2020, shifting to a "social distancing" phase.

In June 2020, he told journalist Cristina Pérez to "go read the Constitution", after being questioned about his attempts to install a government-designated administration in the Vicentín agricultural conglomerate.

A member of the Peronist faction within the Justicialist Party, Fernández was the party's candidate for 2019 Argentine general election and defeated incumbent president Mauricio Macri, with 48% of the votes. His political position has been described as left-wing. His presidency has been dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic in Argentina and the economy of Argentina, during which he imposed strict lockdown measures to suppress the spread of the disease, with a controversy of violating the rules, while the inflation was up at record levels of 100% and unemployment had risen. His approval ratings have been low throughout his presidency, with disapproval ratings from 60 percent to 80 percent.

On 18 May 2019, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner announced that Fernández would be a candidate for president, and that she would run for vice president alongside him, hosting his first campaign rally with Santa Cruz Governor Alicia Kirchner, sister-in-law of the former Kirchner.

On 11 August 2019, Fernández won first place in the 2019 primary elections, earning 47.7% of the vote, compared to incumbent President Mauricio Macri's 31.8%. Fernández thereafter held a press conference where he said he called Macri to say that he would help Macri complete his term and "bring calm to society and markets," and that his economic proposals do not run the risk of defaulting on the national debt.

On 31 December 2019, Fernández announced that he would send a bill in 2020 to discuss the legalization of abortion, ratified his support for its approval, and expressed his wish for "sensible debate". However, in June 2020, he stated that he was "attending to more urgent matters" (referring to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the debt restructuring), and that "he'll send the bill at some point". In November 2020, Fernández's legal secretary, Vilma Ibarra, confirmed that the government would be sending a new bill for the legalization of abortion to the National Congress that month. The Executive sent the bill, alongside another bill oriented towards women's health care (the "1000 Days Plan"), on 17 November 2020. The bill was passed by the Senate, legalizing abortion in Argentina, on 30 December 2020.

U.S President Donald Trump's top adviser for the Western Hemisphere, Mauricio Claver-Carone, crossed Fernández in 2019 saying: "We want to know if Alberto Fernández will be a defender of democracy or an apologist for dictatorships and leaders in the region, whether it be Maduro, Correa or Morales."

Fernández has engaged in disputes with users on Twitter before his presidency, in which his reactions have been regarded as aggressive or violent by some. Tweets show him responding to other users with expletives such as "pelotudo" (Argentinian slang for "asshole"), "pajero" ("wanker"), and "hijo de puta" ("son of a bitch"); he also called presidential candidate José Luis Espert "Pajert", a word play between his last name and the Argentine slang for "wanker". In December 2017, he responded to a female user by saying, "Girl, what you think doesn't worry me. You better learn how to cook. Maybe then you can do something right. Thinking is not your strong suit".

On 1 March, he also announced a restructuring of the Federal Intelligence Agency (AFI), including the publications of its accounts - which had been made secret by Macri in a 2016 decree. The AFI had been criticized for targeting public figures for political purposes.

In a 2017 interview for the Netflix mini-series Nisman: The Prosecutor, the President, and the Spy, Fernández stated that "To this day, I doubt that [Nisman] committed suicide"; however, after he became president in 2020, Fernández reportedly said, "I am convinced that it was a suicide, after doubting it a lot, I am not going to lie." He was referring to Alberto Nisman, a prosecutor investigating Fernández's vice president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner for her suspected cover-up of Iran's participation in the 1994 AMIA bombing. Nisman accused Fernández de Kirchner of secretly negotiating with Iranian officials to cover up their complicity in the attack in exchange for oil to reduce Argentina's energy deficit. Officially, the agreement called for the exchange of Argentinian grain for Iranian oil. Nisman was found dead in his apartment on January 18, 2015, only hours before he was scheduled to present his report to Congress.

He was named head of the City of Buenos Aires chapter of the Justicialist Party, but minimized his involvement in Front for Victory campaigns for Congress in 2009. Fernández actively considered seeking the Justicialist Party presidential nomination ahead of the 2011 general elections. He ultimately endorsed President Cristina Kirchner for re-election, however. He was campaign manager of the presidential candidacy of Sergio Massa in 2015.

A new system of variable taxes on agricultural exports led to the 2008 Argentine government conflict with the agricultural sector, during which Fernández acted as the government's chief negotiator. The negotiations failed, however, and following Vice President Julio Cobos' surprise, tie-breaking vote against the bill in the Senate, Fernández resigned on 23 July 2008.

He gave up his seat when he was appointed Chief of the Cabinet of Ministers by President Néstor Kirchner upon taking office on 25 May 2003, and retained the same post under Kirchner's wife and successor, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, upon her election in 2007.

He was elected on 7 June 2000, to the Buenos Aires City Legislature on the conservative Action for the Republic ticket led by former Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo.

Fernández married Marcela Luchetti, a fellow University of Buenos Aires law student, in 1993. They separated in 2005. Fernández and Luchetti have a single child, Tani Fernández Luchetti (born 1994) known in Argentina for being a drag performer and cosplayer who goes by the stage name Dyhzy.

Alberto Fernández attended the University of Buenos Aires Faculty of Law. He graduated at the age of 24, and later became a professor of criminal law. He entered public service as an adviser to Deliberative Council of Buenos Aires and the Argentine Chamber of Deputies. He became Deputy Director of Legal Affairs of the Economy Ministry, and in this capacity served as chief Argentine negotiator at the GATT Uruguay Round. Nominated by newly elected President Carlos Menem to serve as Superintendent of Insurance, Fernández served as President of the Latin American Insurance Managers' Association from 1989 to 1992, and co-founded the Insurance Managers International Association. He also served as adviser to Mercosur and ALADI on insurance law, and was involved in insurance and health services companies in the private sector. Fernández was named one of the Ten Outstanding Young People of Argentina in 1992, and was awarded the Millennium Award as one of the nation's Businessmen of the Century. During this time he became politically close to former Buenos Aires Province Governor Eduardo Duhalde.

Alberto Ángel Fernández (American Spanish: [alˈβeɾto feɾˈnandes] (listen); born 2 April 1959) is an Argentine politician, lawyer and professor, serving as president of Argentina since 2019. Born in Buenos Aires, Fernández attended the University of Buenos Aires, where he earned his law degree at the age of 24, and later became a professor of criminal law. He entered public service as an adviser to Deliberative Council of Buenos Aires and the Argentine Chamber of Deputies. In 2003, he was appointed Chief of the Cabinet of Ministers, serving during the entirety of the presidency of Néstor Kirchner, and the early months of the presidency of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.