Who is the new president of El Salvador who broke the bipartisanship

Nayib Bukele will become the youngest president of El Salvador on June 1, after winning the presidential election in the first round, thus breaking 30 years of bipartisanship in which the left FMLN and the conservative ARENA have taken turns in turn the power.

Bukele added 53.83% of the vote, surpbading the 51% threshold allowing him to avoid a second round planned for March 10th. Behind them are Carlos Calleja of the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) and Hugo Martinez of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) with 31.59% and 13.76%, respectively.

"Today, we won in the first round and we have marked history," Bukele said during the election night, pointing out that he had added more votes than ARENA. and the FMLN together and that it was imposed in the 14 departments in which the Central American nation is divided. "We adopted the post-war page," he proclaimed.

ARENA and FMLN are the two parties that led peaceful coexistence between two blocs that fought for twelve years in a bloody civil war. The right-wing alliance ruled continuously between 1989 and 2009, a year in which left-wing formation relieved it until now.

Bukele comes from the FMLN. Under these abbreviations, he obtained his first public office in 2012 as mayor of the small municipality of Nuevo Cuscatlán, located just ten kilometers from San Salvador. Three years later, the same party placed him at the capital's town hall, after two consecutive periods of ARENA.

BREAK WITH FMLN

The idyll ended when they began to criticize the outgoing President, Salvador Sánchez-Cerén, former commander of the FMLN during the armed conflict, who will step down as the country's least-valued head of state in the country. over the past 30 years, according to a Gallup opinion poll.

In 2017, Bukele was expelled from the FMLN for throwing an apple and called "witch" to Xotchil Marchelli, leader of a capital, at a meeting of the San Salvador City Council. "If I do not move away, it strikes me in the face," she said at the time.

The FMLN Court of Ethics imposed on Bukele the maximum sanction, accusing him of "disrespecting the human rights of women, in flagrant violation of the principles and statutes of the party", even though it was not the case. he also accused him of "personal behavior", which defamed his comrades. his excessive criticism of Sánchez-Cerén.

In response, Bukele formed his own party, New Ideas. He did not have the time to register with the electoral authorities. He therefore badociated himself with the Cambio Democrático (CD) to participate in the contest on February 3, but they also did not admit the recording of CDs, among other parties, because of the poor results obtained during the elections. 2015

Bukele had to look for an alternative. Thus, he eventually joined the Grand Alliance for National Unity (GANA), just three days before the holding of primary elections. This gave a 180-degree turn, since GANA is located in the center-right.

Neither left nor right

Since his brutal departure from the FMLN, he has worked hard not to reveal his ideas. His speech is based almost entirely on the fight against corruption, while in other areas – some of great importance, such as the fight against criminal violence – remains in limbo, which has allowed him to do more. add support to both sides of the political spectrum.

A symptom of his apolitical nature is the way he ran the election campaign. Bukele has opted for social networks, where he publishes all kinds of videos and photographs about his daily life, including an ultrasound. He came to be absent from the traditional televised debate between the candidates to make their own transmission on Facebook.

His message seems to be focused on young people. He has focused many of his policies in the Mayor's office in San Salvador, with cultural programs to keep them away from gangs. "The Diario de Hoy" says that the over 40s will decide the election, that's what they want, that young people do not vote, "he wrote on Instagram.

He accompanies his appearances on social networks with an unusual "glance" among Salvadoran politicians. He usually wears jeans and a leather jacket and it is usual to see him wearing caps and sunglbades.

HARTAZGO WITH TRADITIONAL POLITICS

The third way proposed by Bukele is a strange phenomenon in Salvadoran politics, which the experts explain by the growing dissatisfaction with the traditional parties which, for all these years, have not been able to answer to the structural problems of the country: violence and poverty.

The straw that filled the glbad was the corruption scandals that affected the FMLN, ARENA and its former presidents. Although the GANA has also played in theirs, it seems that the lure of the former mayor of the capital is stronger. "Money reaches when no one is flying", has been his motto.

Beyond its flagship theme, it will now have to position itself on key issues for El Salvador, such as violence, which remains one of the highest in the world with an average of 51 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, and poverty which affects 30 countries. percentage of Salvadoran households, according to official 2017 data.

He will also have to deal with the exodus caused by this tandem of violence and poverty. Since October, thousands of Central Americans, including Salvadorans, have left for the United States. Donald Trump has threatened to withdraw US aid to the region's governments for not controlling their borders.

On the international scene, it seems clear that Bukele will bring El Salvador out of the Bolivarian axis led by Venezuela. The elected president has described Nicolás Maduro as a "dictator" and has shown his willingness to work together so that the neighboring country "starts from scratch and restores its democracy".

Regardless of his "road map", this 37-year-old politician of Palestinian origin will have to win the sympathy of an opposition congress in which GANA holds only eleven of its 84 seats, with ARENA being the majority formation.