The plenary session of the Chamber of Deputies was not only a tug-of-war between the ruling party and the opposition, but it also made it possible to show how the field is drawn and how those who intend to place themselves at the “political center” are becoming more and more like what they do not want to be… paradoxes of politics.
On Tuesday, the majority opinion of the Constitution Commission was submitted for debate, which approved 20 of the 66 powers requested by the Executive. This document, which according to those in the know “saved” the Executive’s initiative from the archive, was “consensus” by the Popular Renewal (RN), Good Government Party (PBG), Ahora Nación and Obras benches. The original proposal of the Constitution Commission, chaired by Giannina Avendaño of Together for Peru (JP), was to archive the request.
The plenary session rejected this report with the votes of Fuerza Popular (FP), since the ruling party wanted a 50-point opinion to be approved that was an error, not only of calculation, but a political misstep. After a 12-hour debate, the Chamber of Deputies – due to a request for reconsideration raised by Representative Roxana Rocha of Renovación Popular – approved the original 20-point document.
Fuerza Popular understood that the 50 points raised would not come to fruition, so they opted to collect the 20-point opinion and add 9 of their own, something that was not even voted on. What was voted on at Ernesto Zunini’s request was the 50-point minority opinion, which as expected was not approved. Prior to the substantive debate, a group of deputies from JP and PBG demanded a gesture, proof that what was approved in the Lower House would not be “denatured” in the Senate.
After discussions and express requests from Rossana Alayza (PBG) that FP join the majority opinion – she even went so far as to say “vote with us” –, everything changed, because precisely the Good Government Party bench, which was supposed to be the “trustee of the balance”, ended up voting in abstention on the opinion that they themselves had agreed upon in the Constitution Commission.
“We are not here to be Fuerza Popular 2016, we wanted to say yes to the country, give them powers in security and in the El Niño phenomenon, but it is not enough for them. They cannot accept 20; if it is not 20, they want 25, 30; now they wanted 50, now they return to 20 plus 9. We are not going to give them anything now, because they have no say, because they do not comply, and because today they are showing the country that they do not care.” This was the last intervention in the plenary session by Rossana Alayza (PBG), who thus settled the discussion.
Wasn’t the limited document in which PBG participated what was voted on? Is justifying an abstention saying “now we don’t give them anything”, like someone who says at the end of a discussion “now you really screwed up”?
While the PBG tried to distance itself as much as it could from its FP colleagues, they ended up voting the same, as several orange deputies pressed the yellow abstention button.
The campaign is over. The No to Keiko flags are useful for the marches, but not for Parliament, and the ruling party must learn to handle itself as a minority, they are no longer fighting for an election. The country waits.
