Keiko Fujimori insists on early elections after Boluarte meeting
Lima, Feb 15 (EFE).- Peruvian conservative leader Keiko Fujimori insisted Wednesday on her request to advance general elections in her country, in which she said she wouldn’t participate, after meeting President Dina Boluarte at the government palace in Lima.
“We have had a broad, long, sincere meeting, where an analysis has been made of the social and political crisis that our country is going through and the possible solutions. International issues have also been discussed, of which I cannot give many details,” Fujimori said after the meeting, which lasted more than an hour and a half.
She said she arrived at the palace “at the invitation of Boluarte,” and that between the Government and her Fuerza Popular party “there has been a coincidence, which is public: that the fastest way out of this crisis would be to advance the elections to 2023.”
“It is a position that I have pointed out on several occasions and for several months ago. However, we have seen a strange coincidence between the extremes, between the extreme right and the extreme left, which unfortunately boycotted this exit, making excuses,” she added.
Fujimori said that if an early election takes place, she will not “be a presidential candidate.”
She said, however, that “what cannot happen” among the political forces of her country “is to look to the side, not find a way out” to solve the political and social crisis that began last December and has left 70 dead.
“I call on the parties that defend democracy to try to find a solution,” she said before recalling that there are still “two days left” for the current legislature of Congress to end.
“The Peruvian people can draw their own conclusions and will judge each political group by the way they have voted,” she said.
Fujimori, who lost the 2021 elections to leftist Pedro Castillo, who took Boluarte as vice president, arrived at the presidential headquarters accompanied by the secretary general of the Fuerza Popular party, Luis Galarreta, and the spokesman for his group, Miguel Torres.
Shortly before this meeting, Boluarte began the round of dialogue with political parties with a meeting with representatives of the center-right party Somos Peru, attended by its general secretary, Alejandro Fernandez, and congressman Jose Jeri, while its President Patricia Li , participated virtually.
The president herself summoned leaders of the political parties to a meeting Tuesday “to address the political and social crisis, as well as the situation of the country in the international context.
Boluarte has sent two bills to Congress to advance the general elections in her country and, after Parliament’s rejection, said on several occasions that the decision remains in the hands of the chamber.
The country has been experiencing a period of social upheaval since Dec. 7, when then-President Pedro Castillo failed in an attempted self-coup and was dismissed by congress, which immediately appointed Boluarte, who was vice president, as head of state by constitutional succession.
A wave of protests began since, especially in Lima and in the south of the country, demanding the resignation of Boluarte, the closure of Congress, the advancement of elections and the calling of a constituent assembly. EFE
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