Cristina Fernández de Kirchner alludes to alleged plot against her by local businessmen and ‘foreign help’ in televised speech

Argentinian opposition politicians have accused the country’s president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, of being “completely out of touch with reality” after she gave a rambling televised address in which she claimed the US may be behind a plot to overthrow her government and possibly even assassinate her.

“If something should happen to me, don’t look to the Middle East, look to the North,” Fernández said during the address on Tuesday night, in which she alluded to an alleged plot against her by local bankers and businessmen “with foreign help”.

Fernández had previously claimed to have received death threats from Islamic State (Isis) because of her friendship with Pope Francis. In last night’s speech, however, she seemed to suggest the threats against her, received in three emails to Argentinian security officials, had come from the US.

Her claim comes in the wake of a rapid deterioration of Argentina’s already rocky relationship with the US after the country went into default in August.

Argentina has rejected paying $1.3bn (£990m) awarded by New York Judge Thomas Griesa to “vulture fund” investors who refused to accept a “haircut” on Argentinian bonds from the country’s previous default in 2001.

“I’m not naive, this is not an isolated move by a senile judge in New York,” said Fernández. “Because vultures look a lot like the eagles of empires,” referring to the bald eagle, the national symbol of the US.

Fernández almost threw out the US embassy chief of mission Kevin Sullivan for saying “it is important Argentina get out of default” to a local newspaper. Fernández claims that despite its debt crisis, Argentina is not in real default and Sullivan was called in for a reprimand by the Argentinian foreign ministry for using the “default” word.

With economic stagnation, Argentina’s peso currency in free fall and an alarming rise in crime levels, Fernández has seemed increasingly beleaguered in the last few weeks.

There is also increasing uncertainty within her Victory Front party regarding who Fernández will back as presidential candidate in 2015. Fernández’s second term ends next year, and she is unable to stand for re-election, though her 37-year-old son Máximo Kirchner could be a candidate to replace her.

Elisa Carrió, the presidential candidate of the centrist opposition UNEN party, said President Fernández was “completely out of touch with reality”.

“Since she doesn’t resist reality, with unemployment, high inflation, the rising dollar, she says it’s no longer Isis trying to kill her, but the US,” said Carrió. “She’s inventing conspiracies.”

The president’s mental wellbeing was previously questioned by Hillary Clinton in 2010. “Is she taking medication?”, Clinton asked in a diplomatic cable leaked to the press while she was US secretary of state. “How does stress affect her behaviour toward advisers and/or her decision-making?” the memo added.