They are South America’s ultimate power couple, recalling the heyday of Juan Domingo Perón and his wife Evita.

Néstor Kirchner is the President who led Argentina out of its economic “hell” after the crash of 2001. His wife, Cristina, is the powerful senator who helped to tame the country’s Congress and made it do her husband’s bidding.

With a presidential election looming in October, Mr Kirchner has ended months of speculation by indicating that he will not seek a second term in office. Instead, his wife will run as the ruling party’s candidate.

An official announcement will be made in her home city of La Plata this month but already government supporters have covered the streets of Buenos Aires with posters bearing her image.

Mrs Kirchner will attempt to become the first woman to be elected President of Argentina as part of a carefully coordinated domestic arrangement to create a Kirchner dynasty. A presidential turn by Mrs Kirchner would allow her husband to return at a later date, avoiding the pitfalls of serving a potentially damaging consecutive term. The Kirchners are leaders of the main left-wing faction of the country’s fractious Peronist party, founded by Juan Perón. He and his second wife Eva, known widely as Evita, were immensely popular among working-class Argentinians and are still considered to be iconic figures by followers of his party.

Perón was still in office when he died in 1974 and was succeeded by his third wife, Isabel, whose term came to an abrupt end when her government was overthrown by a junta in 1976.

Polls indicate that Mrs Kirchner would win a presidential vote, although recent local elections which featured a strong showing by opposition candidates, suggested that the outcome might be closer than was expected.

In June the Kirchners suffered two political setbacks. In Buenos Aires, the capital, the right-wing Mauricio Macri, the son of one of the country’s richest businessmen, beat Mr Kirchner’s candidate in the mayoral election. In the far south a left-wing challenger defeated the Peronists to become governor of Tierra del Fuego.

The idea of a Cristina candidacy has been floated regularly during Mr Kirchner’s four years in office in an effort to gauge potential public support.

The Kirchners met in law school and married in 1975. After graduating they returned to the President’s Patagonian province of Santa Cruz, where they opened a law practice before going into politics. After his election as governor in 1991 she represented the province in the national congress, becoming a national figure before him. She is considered to be a formidable political operator and her intelligence, allied to a fierce temper, has made her one of the most respected and feared members of the Senate and a key part of her husband’s administration. There are parallels between Mrs Kirchner and Ségolène Royal, the French presidential candidate whose career eclipsed that of her partner, François Hollande. But the senator prefers comparisons with Hillary Clinton.

Mrs Kirchner is more cosmopolitan and better travelled than her proudly provincial husband, who makes plain his distaste for the diplomatic responsibilities of the presidency. Since becoming First Lady her ambition, as well as good looks, temper and fondness for shopping, have been staples of Argentina’s weekly news magazines.

With a booming economy and an opposition still fragmented at national level, many political analysts question why Mr Kirchner would turn down a clear run at reelection.

Though still comfortably ahead of every other politician, including his wife, the President’s poll numbers have fallen in the past year from the high seventies to the mid-fifties after a series of mini-crises.

A lack of investment in the electricity sector has led to blackouts and Mr Kirchner’s administration has been hit by a corruption scandal that has led to several resignations. He stoked fears that inflation was getting out of control when he dismissed economists in the national statistics office and replaced them with loyalists. Striking teachers recently shut schools in various provinces in protests that turned violent.

There has also been speculation about the President’s health since he was treated in hospital for a stomach complaint while visiting his home province in 2004. He is said to be a workaholic obsessed with the minutiae of policy. One popular theory is that he could be amenable to a break, safe in the knowledge that the presidency would be safe in the hands of his wife.

Women on top

— Eleanor Roosevelt was one of America’s most powerful first ladies, campaigning for civil and women's rights. She chaired the UN Commission on Human Rights after her husband’s death

— Imelda Marcos was a close confidant of husband Ferdinand during his repressive 1965-86 rule of the Philippines. After he died in exile she returned and was elected a district representative before facing corruption charges

— Khaleda Zia, wife of President Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh, took no interest in politics until her husband’s assassination in 1981. She became the country’s first woman Prime Minister, serving 1991-1996 and again 2001-2006

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica; who2.com

Times Recommends

• Violent video games won’t corrupt
• Pope Benedict XVI: Alma Mater
• Chávez should know what’s good for him