to appoint his own people. Even the handover ceremony became controversial, as she refused to attend it. It was the first time since the end of military rule in 1983 that the outgoing president did not hand over power to the incoming one. In 2016, she founded a think tank under the name of Patria Institute, intended to centralize her post-presidency activities. She also wrote a book called Sinceramente, which was published in 2019. Senatorial run Both Fernández de Kirchner and her former interior minister Florencio Randazzo wanted to run for senator for the Buenos Aires Province at the 2017 midterm elections. Refusing to run in primary elections, she asked for a shared ticket as a condition to run for senator. Randazzo did not accept the proposal. As both candidates enlisted to run in the general election, the FPV broke apart with the Justicialist Party of Buenos Aires Province backing Randazzo and the rest of the FPV parties backing Fernández de Kirchner; the remaining parties formed the Citizen's Unity (Unidad Ciudadana) coalition. Esteban Bullrich was the candidate of Cambiemos. Fernández de Kirchner won the mandatory primary elections by a slim margin of 0,08%, but lost in the general election 36% to 42%. However, she still took office according to Argentine Senate election procedure where the balloting results in two of the three senate seats being claimed by the party winning the largest vote share, with the second-place finisher claiming the third senate seat. Vice presidency On 27 October 2019, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was elected vice president, making her the first former head of state to assume the Argentine vice presidency. She was the running mate of Alberto Fernández (no relation), who was elected president. She resigned from the Senate on 27 November 2019 after assuming the vice presidency, and was replaced by her former foreign minister Jorge Taiana. Legal charges Cristina Fernández de Kirchner faced several charges in court after leaving office. One of those concerned the sale of dollar futures at very low prices near the end of her term of office. This became a problem during Macri's presidency. The operation was carried out by the Central Bank, but judge Claudio Bonadio believes Fernández de Kirchner is the instigator. She is also being investigated for her role in "The Route of the K-Money" scandal. About US$1 million of her assets was frozen while Bonadio investigated the case. She