The 7D, which stands for December 7, is a special date in Argentina for the conflict between Fernández de Kirchner government and the media. Feeling that the Clarín newspaper was responsible for the

2008 Argentine government conflict with the agricultural sector The 2008 Argentine agrarian strike refers to the conflict between the Argentine national government and the 4 entities that represented the agriculture sector. The crisis began in March 2008 with four agricultural sector employers organizations tak ...

and the defeat at the 2009 legislative elections, the government created a media law to force the Grupo Clarín to sell their media assets. Clarín deemed that specific articles of that law that ordered that were unconstitutional, and began a trial over them. Clarín was benefited by an

injunction An injunction is a legal and equitable remedy in the form of a special court order that compels a party to do or refrain from specific acts. ("The court of appeals ... has exclusive jurisdiction to enjoin, set aside, suspend (in whole or in pa ...

for the duration of the trial, and in 2012 the Court pointed that the injunction should not extend beyond December 7, requesting the judges to make a sentence. The actual events that should take place on December 7 became a huge controversy in Argentina.

Context

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner Cristina Elisabet Fernández de Kirchner (; born 19 February 1953), often referred to by her initials CFK, is an Argentine lawyer and politician who has served as the Vice President of Argentina since 2019. She also served as the President ...

began her first presidency in 2007. The following year she tried to raise the taxes over the exports of primary products, leading to a conflict with the agricultural sector. The Congress voted the bill, got a tie, and vice president

Julio Cobos Julio César Cleto Cobos (; born 30 April 1955) is an Argentine politician who was the Vice President of Argentina in the administration of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner from 2007 to 2011. He started his political career as member of ...

cast a negative vote; the rejection of the bill ended the conflict. During the conflict the government accused both the demonstrators and the press, mainly the Clarín newspaper, of attempting a

coup d'état A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...

. The conflict reduced the public support to the Fernández de Kirchner administration, which stayed low as of 2009. The government brought the

legislative elections A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

, planned for October, forward to June. The former president

Néstor Kirchner Néstor Carlos Kirchner (; 25 February 195027 October 2010) was an Argentine lawyer and politician who served as the President of Argentina from 2003 to 2007, Governor of Santa Cruz Province from 1991 to 2003, Secretary General of UNASUR and ...

ran in a deputy candidacy. However, he lost the election to

Francisco de Narváez Francisco de Narváez Steuer (born 22 September 1953 in Bogotá), known as El Colorado or Pancho, is a Colombian-born naturalized Argentine businessman, politician who ran for governor of Buenos Aires Province on the Republican Proposal, Unión PR ...

.Fraga, pp. 235-252 Blaming Clarín for the defeat,

Kirchnerism Kirchnerism ( es, Kirchnerismo ) is an Argentine political movement based on populist ideals formed by the supporters of Néstor Kirchner and his wife Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who consecutively served as Presidents of Argentina. Althoug ...

prepared a new media law, which would force the

Clarín Group Grupo Clarín S.A. is the largest media conglomerate in Argentina. Overview Established as such in 1999, it includes the '' Clarín'' newspaper (the most-widely circulated in Latin America), Papel Prensa (the nation's principal newsprint manufact ...

to get rid of several licenses of radio, TV channels and TV cable. This could be done because, although the elections were anticipated, the date for the renewal of the chamber stayed the same, allowing a longer period for the defeated party to keep their majority. Clarín began a trial on a pair of articles of the law, maintaining that they were not constitutional, and got an

that prevented the application of the law on them during the trial. It was the only media group that began such a trial, and the injunction benefited only them. However, the Kirchnerist administration refused to apply the law on the other media groups of the country until the trial of Clarín is over. As time passed without a sentence on the actual topic, the Supreme Court declared that the injunction should not extend beyond December 7, 2012, without a sentence.

Escalation of events

The government announced in September, during a spot, that they would sell Clarín's licences if they had not proposed a plan to do so themselves on December 7. The spot used the name "7D" for it, which was incorporated in public discourse since then.

Popular support

On 9 December 2012, around 800 thousand people went to

Plaza de Mayo The Plaza de Mayo (; en, May Square) is a city square and main foundational site of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It was formed in 1884 after the demolition of the Recova building, unifying the city's Plaza Mayor and Plaza de Armas, by that time know ...

in support of the president

and requested Argentinian justice to fulfill the law

http://www.lanacion.com.ar/1535416-la-militancia-capto-rapidamente-el-mensaje-el-rival-es-la-justicia

References

Bibliography

* {{cite book , title= Fin de ciKlo: ascenso, apogeo y declinación del poder kirchnerista , last= Fraga , first= Rosendo , authorlink= Rosendo Fraga , year= 2010 , publisher= Ediciones B , location= Buenos Aires , language= Spanish , isbn= 978-987-627-167-7 Political scandals in Argentina Presidency of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner Media bias controversies 2012 controversies 2012 in Argentina Freedom of the press