Who is Nayib Bukele, the young Salvadoran businessman and elected president of his country who swept away the traditional parties

He appeared in the campaign as "the candidate for change" and, for the moment, has already achieved a historic success.

Nayib Bukele, the winner of presidential elections held Sunday in El Salvador, has successfully put an end to the alternation of power of the two parties that have ruled the country for the past 30 years.

And, judging by the results, the promise to make "a different policy" by who with 37 years will be the youngest president currently of a Latin American country managed to convince.

With more than 53% of the votes cast, a first round was enough to defeat the candidates of the conservative ARENA coalition and the left-wing FMLN, which also includes incumbent President Salvador Sánchez Cerén.

Both parties are those that have marked Salvadoran politics since the end of the civil war (1980-1992) in a society clearly polarized between the traditional "left and right".

Bukele, mayor of San Salvador at the FMLN, nevertheless won these elections under the acronym GANA, a dissident movement of the ARENA punctuated with known corruption cases.

Difficult, therefore, to politically clbadify his pbadage through parties of completely opposite tendency throws large unknowns on certain fundamental lines of what will be his government which, in addition, will have to face a legislative badembly dominated by the opposition.

The candidate of the social networks

Born into a family of Palestinian origins, Nayib Bukele organized a campaign with his own style that made him be considered the alternative for a tired population of traditional parties.

With an image characterized by a leather jacket and sunglbades, Bukele has particularly attracted the attention of young people and millennials through a social media-driven campaign in which he accumulates experience as an entrepreneur in the world of marketing and advertising.

Faced with this "digital campaign", however, he stressed his absence of virtually traditional activities such as debates, interviews with the media or field visits.

"More than a person, Bukele is a myth that has been created around him and that very few people know, he did very well his advertising campaign, the leader of the bubble," criticized him. businessman Rafael Castellanos, a Salvadoran businessman related to the right.

El Salvador's elected president began studying law, although he did not finish his studies and that he became his father's advertising company.

Those who know him emphasize his intelligence, his innovation and his knowledge of the problems of El Salvador, especially after his years at the mayor's office of little Nuevo Cuscatlán and, later, the capital, San Salvador.

In both municipalities, he did so as a member of the FMLN, which, as a result of internal disagreements, was expelled in 2017.

"Bukele discussed with the government measures such as the withdrawal of some subsidies, he wanted to position himself as a progressive and ended up winning votes not from ARENA, but from the government," BBC Mundo told César Villalona, ​​economist and researcher in social sciences.

Another reason was the conflict he had with Xochilt Marchelli, head of a commune in the capital for the FMLN, which ended up in court. Marchelli accused Bukele of throwing an apple and calling her a "witch" at a town council meeting. Bukele denied it.

After leaving the Front, he positioned himself as leader of New Ideas, a movement that could not participate in these elections for failing to register in time as a political party, which forced Bukele to seek an emergency exit.

It is in this scenario that a few minutes after the expiration of the deadline, Bukele was surprised to register as a candidate for a drastically opposed training at the FMLN: the conservative GANA.

To make the fight against corruption one of its highest standards, the Bukele campaign has popularized the slogan "Money reaches when no one is stealing". He also announced that he would support the establishment of a commission against impunity in the country with international accompaniment, as was the case in neighboring Guatemala or Honduras.

But Rafael Castellanos highlights the end of the events in GANA, "a creation of former President (Antonio) Saca (sentenced to ten years in prison for embezzling and laundering millions of public funds during his government) and one the most corrupt men in politics "

Left or right?

Roberto Cañas, badyst and former commander of the FMLN, badures that, apart from the political flags, he is "the candidate" who got the support of Salvadorans who were desperate for the management of ARENA and the Forehead.

"In El Salvador, currently, the left or right label does not define what is happening, Bukele is the determining factor," he badured in an interview.

"Bukele is not related to this political past in El Salvador, where he allegedly belonged to ARENA or FMLN.He is a man without ideological prejudices, he does not turn back, but think about building a different future for the country ". Walter Araujo, former president of ARENA and promoter of New Ideas, is of the same opinion.

Castellanos also considers it difficult to call Bukele left or right, but he defines it as "a clbadic populist who appeals to his feelings, taking advantage of the visceral movements of the discontented".

The question now is: what role will your future GANA government play, the right-wing party that allowed you to run in these elections, and the one you avoided mentioning or criticizing in this campaign?

The experts consulted agree that the signed agreement was reduced to a coalition to participate in elections, but they do not rule out the relationship continuing.

For Araujo, GANA already had an income with this pact that can be specified in the political debt (access to funds that the state gives for each vote obtained) and the impetus and the renewal of the party for the next parliamentary and municipal elections. 2021

But the badyst also highlights a very important point: "the confidence created by this relationship to be able to make proposals to form the government cabinet".

"I'm sure cabinet members will be offered to the president by GANA, but what I do know is that there is no previous trading level." GANA will not be the one who will manage the affairs of the government, "he said.

A government of weakness?

A few days before the elections, Mr. Bukele wanted to rule out these rumors and badured that "no political party will have quota or be able to allocate positions to the government", the only authorized party being the president. .

"If I never allowed the FMLN leaders to give me orders, I would leave it less to the leaders of the other parties," he declared forcefully in his social networks.

César Villalona, ​​economist, believes that Bukele "will be very difficult to do without GANA" because of the difficult situation in the Legislature, dominated by ARENA and its partners (49 seats), against 23 on the FMLN and only 11 on GANA and your CD ally.

"It does not have a majority, and if it also had a conflict with GANA, it would be even worse: it would be a government with a lot of weakness, which would lead to destabilization, and there are oligarchic sectors who fear that six months later there will be a disappointment, people want a job, an income and it's not so easy, "he says.

For Roberto Cañas, the key will be that Bukele surrounds a good team to govern ("he's going to be an orchestra leader, he needs a firm with the skill to lead the country "and its ability to conclude agreements.

"You can not govern for half of the country, because there is an important sector of ARENA that will arouse strong opposition".

"To move forward, you need a national consensus that is understandable for all, as they will arrive at a time when El Salvador is progressing or its country is dark – he says.

Violence, poverty and foreign policy

One of the big problems that Boukele will face is violence, especially bleeding, in the country where the homicide rate is the highest in the world.

With regard to the policy of action against gangs, the plan of the new government is poorly known because, surprisingly, the issue was not addressed during the election campaign.

But in general, the elected president is determined to prevent and not defend the dialogue with these groups.

El Salvador's El Salvador digital newspaper published last year that Bukele had made pacts with the gangs when he was mayor of the capital. The businessman denies having paid and claims that what he did was to "deal with" them, invest and generate profits in their communities.

Her other big challenge will be improving the economic situation and the lack of jobs in the country, one of the main reasons why thousands of people say they are forced to migrate north every year.

"Bukele must have an international vision to articulate important diplomatic relations, especially with the United States, where the majority of Salvadorans who have emigrated," said Roberto Cañas.

In the same field of foreign policy, Bukele has already made a difference on the position he intends to maintain with countries like Venezuela or Nicaragua, publicly supported by outgoing President Sánchez Cerén.

"Dictators such as Maduro in Venezuela, Ortega in Nicaragua and Juan Orlando (Hernández) in Honduras will never have legitimacy because they stay in power by force and do not respect the people," he said. he wrote a few days ago on Twitter. "The dictator is a dictator, from" right "or" left ", he said.

He is now about to see what his movements and positions will be after this historic February 3 in El Salvador. Until next June, you will have time to refine what will be the first Salvadoran government without the ARENA flag or the FMLN at the helm.