Presidency of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner sliding scale; at the event, Kirchner called on farmers to act "as part of a country, not as owners of a country." In April 2008, on the 26th anniversary of the Falklands War, Kirchner stepped up Argentine claims to the Falkland Islands. She called Argentina's rights to the islands "inalienable". The large majorities in the Argentine Congress enjoyed by the Front for Victory could not ultimately guarantee a legislative blank check: on July 16, 2008, the presidentially sponsored bill met with deadlock, and was ultimately defeated by the tie-breaking "no" vote of Vice President Julio Cobos himself. The controversy cost
Argentine Grand Prix but was cancelled pre-season, leaving a 5-week gap between the opening two rounds of the 1999 championship. In February 2012, Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner announced negotiations were coming to a close to bring the Grand Prix back to the country by 2013, this time at a street circuit to be created in the seaside resort city of Mar del Plata, scotching stories which surfaced in December 2011 that suggested a new circuit, being constructed at Zárate, was to target F1. Contracts were expected to be signed on May 2012, but this didn't happen. Bernie Ecclestone, commercial rights holder