With a deficient electoral offer, it is natural to notice a less than encouraging composition of the 2026-2031 Congress. The alerts are raised mainly by the makeup of the Senate.
The right would have, according to projections, half or a little more of the Senate divided between Fuerza Popular and Renovacion Popular. If one reviews the profiles of those who will enter the Senate for these parties, they can only find three candidates with the political experience to assume that role: Miguel Ángel Torres and Martha Chávez (Fuerza Popular) and Lourdes Alcorta (Renovación Popular). All three have an increasingly scarce capacity in Congress: knowing how to say no and vote against populist measures.
The rest of the composition will be informed by profiles of the current Congress, which never knew how to take a stand against the populist waves (withdrawals from the AFP and other laws with adverse fiscal impact), in addition to the new faces that will step into the Senate, this being their first parliamentary experience: they will learn, not only about the legislative dynamics, but also about the functioning of the Senate and the art of doing politics.
On the other side there are two blocks of benches that can end up working together. On the one hand, the left with Together for Peru and Ahora Nación; on the other hand, the ‘surfer’ benches of the Good Government and Works Party or Country for All (to be defined according to the official ONPE count).
The left arrives with its repetitive agenda of a new Constitution, and the ‘Castillista’ bloc will only seek to use the parliamentary platform to vindicate the release of Pedro Castillo. Works and Country for All arrive in electoral boats that are barely maintained and that will move according to the populist tides, so the pendulum of the balance could be in the bench of Jorge Nieto’s party.
The problem with Nieto’s group is that they have some technocrats and academics with no political experience. Recent periods have shown us that these types of profiles end up isolated in Congress with no room for action and, in some cases, absorbed by legislative populism. Very good ideas and speeches, but little impact on legislative work. The last good law that Congress produced, from a technical point of view, was the university reform law published 12 years ago, whose architect was a military man, Daniel Mora.
The first year of the Senate can be chaotic with a composition of profiles that more closely resemble that of a representative. The key will be how willing Fuerza Popular and Renovación Popular will be to sit down to agree on a joint agenda. This will depend a lot on two scenarios: if Renovación Popular reaches the second round and how the dispute with Fuerza Popular develops; and in case of not reaching or losing in the second round, know the attitude that Rafael López Aliaga will adopt regarding his entry to the Senate, where he has a seat guaranteed by his vote. Those are scenarios that should already be running in ‘polymarket’.
*El Comercio opens its pages to the exchange of ideas and reflections. In this plural framework, the Diario does not necessarily agree with the opinions of the columnists who sign them, although it always respects them.
