How was the debate in Chota between Keiko Fujimori and …

Three weeks before the first round and six weeks before the ballot that will define the presidency of Peru, the two candidates, the trade unionist and the teacher Pedro Castillo and the daughter of one of the country’s most questioned ex-presidents, Keiko Fujimori, they clashed today face to face in a very unusual first debate born of a challenge on Twitter, which was not ignored by Argentinian users.

Castillo, the candidate of Peru Libre, remains the favorite in the polls with an average of 44%, while Fujimori is far behind with 34%. No prognosis seems clear even with more than 11% of possible blank and null votes, the two candidates did not hold back for a minute today.

“On this May 1, I greet those of us who are eating bread won by the sweat of our brow … and I also greet Ms. Fujimori, although I do not know for how long and where she has worked.”Castillo began to mark the acid and harsh tone that marked the entire debate.

“I also greet Castillo that after making so many apologies, he agreed to come here and I remind him that this is only the first of the four national debates in which I hope we can see each other”, a replied the conservative candidate, amid loud boos. inhabitants of Chota, birthplace of the trade unionist of less than 50,000 inhabitants and far from the big cities he has chosen for the meeting.

The presidential debate was televised and unlike any previously held in Peru, an example of what promises to be a different, more aggressive and less structured campaign.

It took place in the small town’s central plaza, after Castillo challenged Fujimori on Twitter to visit this rural area, one of its strongholds. When the candidate accepted, the municipality took over the organization and invited two local journalists to mediate and allowed the local population to continue the discussion on the spot, which at times gave it an air of strange act. countryside.

The two candidates dressed in the colors of the Peruvian flag – she with the national football team jersey and he with a jacket with an export logo of the Peru brand – and social distance and social distance have always been respected on scene. Wearing the chinstrap, except when speaking.

“The coronavirus is not just a health problem, it is temporary, it is political, moral, economic; it’s a product of the neoliberal model that says, ‘Save yourself if you can, buy oxygen if you can, buy ibuprofen if you can. We want a new one. Constitution so that health is a constitutional right and guarantee a budget of no less than 10% of GDP, ”proposed Castillo, who assured that he had already obtained 20 million doses against the coronavirus for the first half of August.

Fujimori, in turn, described the government’s policy of testing and expanding the production of medical oxygen as a failure and promised to build factories, administer 60,000 molecular tests per day, and give a bonus to oxygen to family members who were losing loved ones. Covid-19 and added an ambitious pledge: “This year all Peruvians will be vaccinated.”

The two said there was a dialogue with Russia to get a dose.

Without a doubt, one of the topics Castillo stood out the most on was education.

“We have to be serious when we talk about the education of our people. My children are in public school, I studied in public school, my father did not pay for my studies, and I did not study abroad. The education of the Peruvian people should be a constitutional right, sufficient to benefit from education ”, affirmed the trade unionist, marking once again the difference of socio-economic class with his electoral rival.

Coincidentally, it was on this issue that Fujimori explicitly justified the leadership of his father, Alberto Fujimori, now sentenced to prison for crimes against humanity and who is remembered in the country for his self-attack. State and for resigning and fleeing to Japan when his government collapsed in Japan. year 2000.

“I will build 3000 schools like my father did in his government”, promised the candidate and took the opportunity to reaffirm that what happened in the country at the time when her father committed the crimes for which he is accused and the Shining Path guerrillas were active “it was not an internal war, it was terrorism”.

From there he moved on to “the so-called gender ideology” and promised to “eliminate it and enforce gender equality”.

For his part, Castillo included in his educational proposals a reform of the penitentiary system, to which he added a Chicana against Fujimori, released by a decision of a second instance court which allowed him to await his trial for corruption in freedom.

“There are criminals everywhere. We have found criminals in the political arena, in the business world … they have gnawed people’s pockets. We are going to fight crime with an education from below so that no one commits a crime, “Castillo said and added:” The criminals who are in the state get breakfast, lunch, dinner, a phone and they even get legal aid. With our government, work and earn their bread in the sweat of their brow. “”

One of the last topics of the debate was economic recovery.

Fujimori promised to create two million jobs, to double the premium for those over 65, to “revitalize social programs”, to buy the debt of SME owners, to allocate 40% of the purchases of the State to those same small and medium enterprises. And called in the armed forces. Forces to seal borders to stop illegal immigration.

Castillo, for his part, began by promising to review the contracts of “transnational corporations that steal the wealth of the country” and promised that 70% of their profits would remain in the territory; He spoke of a second agrarian reform, credits for micro-enterprises, extending the bonus for seniors to 60 years and prohibiting “the importation of what the people produce”.

Unlike his rival, the trade unionist directly or indirectly mentioned ex-president Fujimori, the last time towards the end to respond to Keiko when he asked him to comply with the next debates: “Don’t run, Pedro, don’t run. not. “He replied,” I’m not going to come like his father did. “