BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Argentine President Cristina Fernandez burst back on the scene yesterday after a five-week absence following surgery, naming as economy minister the government’s point man in its 2012 seizure of the country’s biggest oil company.
The promotion of leftist economist Axel Kicillof, who had been deputy economy minister, was announced by government spokesman Alfredo Scoccimarro in a televised address just minutes after Fernandez appeared for the first time since early October. Kicillof, a charismatic and polarizing figure, steered the administration’s expropriation of a controlling stake in energy company YPF from its former parent company, Spain’s Repsol.
The YPF takeover enraged Argentina’s trading partners from the European Union, but was welcomed by many Argentines as a defense of national strategic interests.
Known for his fiery speeches in defense of Fernandez’s unorthodox economic policies, Kicillof spent most of his career in academia, giving classes and writing about the theories of economists such as John Maynard Keynes and Karl Marx.
He replaces Hernan Lorenzino, who was named ambassador to the European Union.
Fernandez had an operation on Oct 8 to remove blood that had pooled on the surface of her brain after she fell and bumped her head.
She had not made an official public appearance or speech until earlier yesterday evening, leaving a five-week political vacuum in Latin America’s third biggest economy.
“Thank you … to the thousands of Argentines who have been praying for me,” a smiling Fernandez said in a televised address.
Sitting on a sofa, she appeared healthy. On a table was a vase of red roses she said had been sent by a well-wisher.
She briefly held a small white dog she said was sent to her by one of the brothers of Hugo Chavez, the late left-wing leader of Venezuela and a political ally of Fernandez.
The president’s absence had been conspicuous in a country accustomed to her centralized leadership style and frequent speeches.
Her office said her agenda yesterday was confined to meetings with senior officials.