Merino took office amid protests | After the …

From Lima. In the midst of citizen protests and denunciations of a parliamentary coup, the new president, Manuel Merino, until yesterday head of Congress, took office. Merino became the unexpected president of Peru after Parliament, in a decision widely rejected and questioned as to its legality, sacked President Martín Vizcarra for “permanent moral incapacity”. Vizcarra had taken office in March 2018, after the resignation due to corruption allegations of Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, of which he was vice-president, and since he did not have a vice-president, the head of the Congress had to replace. Merino came to the presidency with the support of various groups – seven from the right, including Fujimorism, and a small group from the left – who voted in Congress to remove Vizcarra. Several of these groups have in common that their main leaders and legislators are accused of corruption. Merino was inaugurated as president with the violent crackdown on protests against him.

Since Monday evening, with the decision of Congress to overthrow President Vizcarra, known, thousands of citizens have taken to the streets to express their rejection of this measure. The protests continued throughout Tuesday. Defying restrictions due to the pandemic, protesters took to the plazas and streets of Lima and the country’s main cities. “Congress coup”, “Merino does not represent me”, “Merino delinquent, you are not president” chanted indignant citizens, who wore masks and raised Peruvian flags and posters reading inscriptions such as “Merino is not my president ”or“ Usurper Merino. ”Yesterday, with Merino already as president, the police cracked down on the demonstrators with gas, pellets, water jets and shovels, who did not give in to their protests.

The new head of state is a little-known politician who belongs to the center-right People’s Action Party, where he has always occupied a second echelon. His tenure as President of Congress, which began last March after the complementary parliamentary elections that followed the constitutional closure of the previous Parliament, was marked by his confrontation with the executive and a series of rules subsequently declared unconstitutional. Two months ago he had already tried to gain the presidency as part of a previous impeachment process for Vizcarra, which at the time had failed due to lack of votes.

In his first message to the country as president, which lasted only thirteen minutes, Merino defended, but without giving further arguments, the legality of the measure taken by Congress. He has promised a cabinet of consensus and “with the best”, but analysts believe he will have serious problems summoning high-level figures to be part of a government that was born with the shadow of illegitimacy and great unpopularity. At the time of going to press, he had not named his cabinet. He did not refer to the protests against him. After his swearing-in and his first message, he disappeared from the scene.

The Merino regime – which will last eight months, until July of next year, when the government leaving elections already called for April takes office– opens a period of uncertainty and political and social crisis in the midst of the serious health and economic situation due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has already caused more than 900 thousand infections and around 35 thousand deaths. There are serious doubts about Merino’s ability to handle this crisis. There are concerns for the future of the anti-corruption processes, which Vizcarra has supported, with many Merino allies who brought him to power involved in corruption complaints and very interested in reversing those processes.

On Monday evening, shortly after his dismissal became known, Vizcarra said there were legal questions to the decision, but he decided to accept it. In his last message as president, he was accompanied by his ministers. Shortly after, he left the government palace. He left office with over 50% support. A support that contrasts with the discredit of Congress which sacked him.

The next day, outside of the presidency, the first thing he did was meet with his lawyer to prepare his defense against the charges against him for receiving alleged bribes. He said the Merino government has no legality in its origin and has issues of popular legitimacy. This Thursday, Vizcarra must testify before the prosecution.

Vizcarra was accused of collecting bribes from two construction companies for around $ 660 thousand while he was governor of the Moquegua region, between 2011 and 2014. The charge is based on testimony which is still under investigation and a corroboration process. But that hasn’t stopped Congress from moving forward with the impeachment of the president.

The Constitution grants immunity to the president, who cannot be prosecuted during his term of office and can only be removed from office for specific cases, such as treason, leaving the country without authorization, preventing elections, in which the charges against Vizcarra do not come within the scope. To avoid this obstacle, members of Congress imposed the ambiguous figure of “permanent moral incapacity”, the cause of the presidential vacancy.. According to various constitutional scholars, its use in this case is unconstitutional.

“The meaning of the term permanent moral incapacity is that of a mental incapacity which makes it impossible to govern. This has been the case since the 19th century. The decision taken by Congress is illegal, unconstitutional. This is a parliamentary overthrow, ”said constitutional expert Omar Cairo.

Jurist Samuel Abad agrees to qualify the dismissal of Vizcarra by Parliament as “unconstitutional”. “The figure of moral incapacity cannot be used, as has been done, to impeach the president. Here, the votes were imposed on the Constitution ”.

The country’s main newspapers have questioned the impeachment of President Vizcarra. On the front page, La República newspaper headlined “Congress gives coup d’état”, and El Comercio put on front page “Congress leaves country in limbo” and called parliamentary vote “shameful” who kidnapped Vizcarra and put power to Merino.

In dialogue with Page 12, sociologist Alberto Adrianzén underlined that “what happened in Congress aggravates the crisis in the country”. “With that,” he adds, “we are entering a phase of tension and polarization, which will be reflected in the next elections. It’s hard to say now who can make the most of it, but I think radicalism will gain ground ””

“What happened is terrible for democracy. What has prevailed in Congress is an ambition for power. The Merino government may be an unworkable government. Although it is very short, it can do a lot of damage, ”says political scientist Martín Tanaka.

Four presidential candidates for the April elections, former president Ollanta Humala, leftist Verónika Mendoza, centrist Julio Guzmán and right-hander George Forsyth, they spoke out against the withdrawal of Vizcarra by Congress, which they severely criticized.