Q24N — On Monday, July 1, José Raúl Mulino, 65, assumed the Presidency of Panama for the period 2024-2029 in an event in the Panamanian capital before heads of State and Government, and after winning the elections of last May 5th.
The presidential sash was imposed on Mulino by the new president of the National Assembly (AN), deputy Dana Castañeda, her co-religionist in the new party Realzando Metas (RM), before an audience that included the king of Spain, Felipe VI, and the presidents Gustavo Petro, of Colombia; Rodrigo Chaves, from Costa Rica; Xiomara Castro, from Honduras, and Luis Abinader, from the Dominican Republic, among others.
“I swear to God and the Country” to comply and enforce the law and the Constitution, was the oath that Mulino took, flanked by his wife and first lady, Maricel Cohen de Mulino, moments before receiving, visibly moved, the band presidential.
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The new president of Panama won the general elections on May 5 with 34.23% of the votes, after an eventful campaign in which he began as a candidate for vice president of the formula of former president Ricardo Martinelli (2009-2014). , but he took his place ‘in extremis’ after the former ruler was disqualified after being sentenced to more than ten years in prison for corruption and seeking asylum in the Nicaraguan Embassy in Panama.
Despite the resounding presidential victory, the votes for Parliament were much more divided. In this context, the ruling RM, founded by Martinelli after losing control of its original formation, Democratic Change (CD), allied itself with the traditional parties to win this Monday with the leadership of Parliament.
The Government party, which has 13 of the 71 seats, obtained the presidency, the second vice-presidency and the general secretary of Parliament with the support of the traditional parties, while the first vice-presidency was in the hands of the CD.
The independents are, for the first time in the country’s democratic history, the first parliamentary minority with 20 seats – well above the 5 they had in the last legislature – after the debacle of the traditional parties in the general elections.
The historic ones such as the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) obtained 13 seats for the new legislature compared to 35 in the previous one; The CD reached 8 when it previously had 18, and the Panameñista Party (PPa) remained with 8.
Mulino, who has already recognized the emerging independent force and given the atomization in the Assembly, held meetings with all the parties in recent weeks, a sign that he plans to reach a consensus on the measures that must be taken to get the country out of the crisis and that can generate social rejection.
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The economic reactivation, the collapse of a pension subsystem, the water crisis in the Panama Canal and the irregular migration that crosses the country on its way to the United States, as well as the mining controversy, are challenges that await Mulino.
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