Cristina Elisabet Fernández de Kirchner (Spanish pronunciation: ( listen); born 19 February 1953), sometimes referred to by her initials CFK, is an Argentine politician, who served as President of Argentina from 2007 to 2015. She was the second woman to serve as President of Argentina, the first directly elected female president, and the first woman re-elected to the office. Ideologically a Peronist and social democrat, she was a member of the Justicialist Party, with her political approach being characterised as Kirchnerist, a form of left-wing populism.
Born in Tolosa, La Plata, Buenos Aires Province, she studied law for one year at the University of La Plata, and moved to Patagonia with her husband Néstor Kirchner upon his graduation. She was elected to the provincial legislature; her husband was elected mayor of Río Gallegos. She was elected national senator in 1995, and had a controversial tenure, while her husband was elected governor of Santa Cruz Province. In 1994, she was also elected to the constituent assembly that amended the Constitution of Argentina. She was the First Lady from 2003 to 2007 after Néstor Kirchner was elected president.