Argentine President Condemns Attack on Cristina Fernandez

"We are obliged to recover the democratic coexistence, which has been broken by the hate speech that has spread from different spaces," President Fernandez stressed.

Argentine President Alberto Fernandez condemned the attack against Vice President Cristina Fernandez-Kirchner that occurred on Thursday night and declared Friday a non-working day for society to peacefully express its rejection of political violence.

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During a national network broadcast on television a few minutes after the events, Fernandez maintained that the attack against the former president is the "most serious event that has happened" since Argentina returned to democracy in 1983.

The Federal Police immediately arrested the perpetrator of the attack, which occurred when Fernandez-Kirchner was entering her apartment in Buenos Aires' Recoleta neighborhood.

"A man pointed a firearm at her head and triggered it. Cristina remains alive because, for a reason not yet technically confirmed, the weapon that had five bullets did not fire despite having been triggered," the Argentine President said, emphasizing that the event "moves all the Argentine people".

The attack took place amid the climate of strong political tension that Argentina has been experiencing since Aug. 22, when a prosecutor requested a 12-year prison sentence for Cristina Fernandez-Kirchner, who is accused of alleged irregularities in the award of public works during her administration (2007-2015).

Since then, hundreds of her supporters have stood vigil outside her apartment, where the Buenos Aires police, controlled by conservative Mayor Horacio Rodriguez, have tried to evict them on several occasions.

"These events affect our democracy. We are obliged to recover the democratic coexistence, which has been broken by the hate speech that has spread from different political, judicial, and media spaces," President Fernandez stressed.