In a polarized atmosphere, the Peruvian Congress – dominated by the right-wing opposition – suspended the debate on Thursday night (08/26/2021) until Friday to grant or reject a vote of confidence for the ministerial government of leftist President Pedro Castillo. .
“Gentlemen, the session is suspended until tomorrow at 09:00,” Congress President Maria del Carmen Alva announced at 8:30 pm (01:30 GMT) after about 11 hours of debate. The session will resume on August 27 with the intervention of 30 members of Congress who have not yet participated, before clearing the way for a vote. This is the first test of the Castillo government, which took power a month ago.
Castillo’s prime minister, Guido Peledo, presented the plans for the new government to the plenary session of Congress on Thursday morning and requested a vote of confidence, which is necessary for the government to stay in office, according to the constitution. “We came into the room not only to ask for a vote of confidence […], if not then [pedir] Peledo, a 41-year-old engineer and leftist lawmaker, said his appointment as prime minister has been severely questioned by the opposition controlling the conference.
After a presentation of Peledo for about three hours and a lunch break, a bitter debate began between the legislative seats, which could last for several hours. The speech was a fairy tale […]. “We are not in a position to give a vote of confidence,” replied Jorge Montoya, a retired admiral and chair of the far-right seat body. popular renewal.
Hernando Guerra Garcia, Chairman of the Board of Directors popular power, the Keiko Fujimori party, which Castillo defeated on the June 6 ballot. Valdemar Ceron, from the ruling party free peruHe urged us to vote for the government “as proof that we are fighting corruption and injustice.” Meanwhile, police detained dozens of pro- and anti-Executive protesters outside Congress.
Peledo, a native of the Andean region of Cusco – the capital of the ancient Inca Empire – started his exhibition in Quechua and Aymara, the two ancestral languages spoken by about five million of Peru’s 33 million people that are also official languages along with Spanish. This prompted the opposition member and the President of Congress to boycott him and required him to speak only Spanish so that all the legislatures in existence could understand him.
The conflict between the new government and the opposition has cost Foreign Minister Hector Bigard his job. He was replaced by Oscar Martua, a career diplomat unrelated to the left who had previously held the position in 2006. However, Castillo’s opponents expected him to make further changes to his 19-member cabinet before submitting to a vote of confidence. Something the president refused.
New ministries must receive a vote of confidence from Congress 30 days after they are appointed. Should he refuse, Castillo would have to appoint another prime minister and reorganize the government, prolonging the uncertainty. If the legislatures refuse to grant confidence to the same government twice, the constitution authorizes the president to dissolve Congress and call extraordinary parliamentary elections.
ama (afp, Reuters, efe, canal n)
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