Presidency of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner  The Presidency of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner began on 10 December 2007, when she became President of Argentina. She was an Argentine Senator for the Buenos Aires Province at the time of her victory in the 2007 Presidential election. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner became the second female president of Argentina, and the first one directly elected as such (Isabel Martínez de Perón was elected as vice president, and became president after the death of Juan Domingo Perón). In elections of November 2015, she was succeeded by Mauricio Macri as President. With Fernández de Kirchner leading all the pre-election polls by a wide margin, her challengers were trying to force her into a run-off. She needed either more than 45% of the vote, or 40% of the vote and a lead of more than 10% over her nearest rival, to win outright. Fernández won the election in the first round with 45.3% of the vote, followed by 22% for Elisa Carrió (candidate for the Civic Coalition) and 16% for former Economy Minister Roberto Lavagna. Eleven others split the remaining 15%. Kirchner was popular among the suburban working class and the rural poor, while Carrió received more support from the urban middle class, as did Lavagna. Of note, Kirchner lost the election in the three largest cities (Buenos Aires, Córdoba and Rosario), although she won in most other places elsewhere, including the large provincial capitals such as Mendoza and Tucumán. On 14 November, the president-elect publicly announced the names of her new cabinet, which was sworn in on 10 December. Of the 12 ministers appointed, seven were already ministers in Néstor Kirchner's government, while the other five took office for the first time. Three other ministries were created afterwards. The president elect began a four-year term on 10 December 2007, facing challenges including inflation, union demands for higher salaries, private investment in key areas, lack of institutional credibility (exemplified by the controversy surrounding the National Institute of Statistics and Census of Argentina, INDEC), utility companies demanding authorization to raise their fees, low availability of cheap credit to the private sector, and the upcoming negotiation of the defaulted foreign debt with the Paris Club. Fernández de Kirchner was the second female president of Argentina, after Isabel Martínez de Perón, but unlike Perón, Fernández de Kirchner was the head of the ballot, whereas Isabel Perón was elected as vice president of Juan Domingo Perón and became president after his death.