Cristina Kirchner faces brain surgery as key Argentina elections loom Mrs Kirchner vows never to pay the holdouts, whom she derides as "vultures" for picking over the bones of the 2002 default, which pushed millions of middle class Argentines into poverty. The surgery will also keep the combative 60-year-old leader out of action ahead of Oct. 27 mid-term congressional elections that will determine how much legislative clout she enjoys during her final two years in office. Mrs Kirchner's popularity is hovering at about 34 percent, a little more than half of what it reached in October 2011, according to data from local consulting group Management & Fit. Recent polls have indicated the government could lose control of Congress in the mid-term vote, an outcome that would deprive her of the chance of introducing a constitutional reform that would allow her to run for a third term in 2015. Analysts remained skeptical over whether any feelings of sympathy would be enough to boost her administration's candidates in the election. Approval of her administration jumped more than 20 points after her husband, former President Nestor Kirchner, died from a heart attack in October 2010. " (The hematoma) will probably generate some sympathy, which could help her candidates a bit, but is unlikely to materialise into a major change of electoral preferences," Eurasia Group analyst Daniel Kerner wrote on Monday. The demand for change and discontent with low growth, high inflation and crime will likely be more important than (Mrs Kirchner's) health issues. Mrs Kirchner was first elected in 2007 as Argentina was recovering from its catastrophic 2002 debt default. Her protectionist trade policies, currency controls and nationalisation of the country's main airline, oil company and private pension system have confirmed Argentina as an outcast of the international markets while double-digit inflation eats away at the savings of average Argentines.