Argentina’s judiciary on Thursday suspended the resolution that enabled former president (2007-2015) and current Argentina vice president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner to collect a double pension for life: hers as former president and another widowed because of the death of her husband, also former president Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007).
In a brief ruling published today by the judiciary, surrogate federal judge Ezequiel Pérez Nami, belonging to Social Security Court No. 10, agreed with three appeals against the verdict by which Cristina Fernández sought these two benefits late last year. at the same time.
One of the appeals came from the National Social Security Administration (ANSES), while the other two were filed by opposition lawmakers.
“The appeals have been lodged in accordance with the provisions of Article 243 of the CPCCN (Code of Civil and Commercial Procedure of the Nation),” Judge Pérez Nami said in the ruling.
With this decision, Fernández will collect a single pension until the National Social Security Chamber takes a final position on the matter.
The ex-president received a non-contributory pension in December 2010 for the death of her husband as a result of cardiac arrest, a benefit that is considered a lifetime monthly benefit for former presidents that corresponds to her as the widow of a first president.
Five years later, at the end of her second term, Fernández began collecting a life pension again, this time because she had been president.
Then it turned out that the former president charged about 330,000 pesos (about $ 21,700 at the time, 3,753.95 current) a month before taxes for her lifelong retirement as a former president and for widowhood.
In 2016, the former president filed a lawsuit after Mauricio Macri’s government (2015-2019) passed a resolution requiring the choice of a one-time life pension.
In her appeal, the then senator argued that the administration “had no power to suspend the effects of an established and consensual act” and considered that there were “subjective rights in her favor that cannot be revoked, amended or replaced. at the administrative headquarters “.
For example, Fernández claimed the reimbursement of the widow’s pension for the death of ex-president Néstor Kirchner, as well as the amounts that had been withheld as income tax.
Judge Pérez Nami herself agreed with the former president in December 2020 and allowed her to collect the two pensions again, a decision that will be suspended after the ruling published today.