Costa Rica, the populist proper candidate Laura Fernandez wins the elections. That’s who he’s | EUROtoday

Listen to the audio model of the article

Costa Rica turns the web page and palms over the management of the nation to the populist proper. Laura Fernández, 39, candidate of the ruling occasion and thought of the political inheritor of outgoing president Rodrigo Chaves, achieved a transparent victory within the first spherical of the presidential elections held yesterday. With 69.4% of the ballots counted, Fernández acquired 49.61% of the vote, properly exceeding the 40% threshold wanted to keep away from a run-off. The Social Democratic candidate Álvaro Ramos is much behind, caught at 32.12%, in keeping with official information from the Supreme Electoral Court.

The outcome additionally exceeds the expectations of pre-election polls, which positioned Fernández at round 44%, and consolidates the wave of successes of conservative forces in Latin America. An consequence greeted with enthusiasm by the Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele, who has already despatched his congratulations to the newly elected.

Former minister of nationwide planning and former chief of employees of Chaves, Fernández has constructed her profession throughout the public administration, turning into a key determine within the present institution. According to Pilar Cisneros, chief of the federal government majority in Parliament and historic ally of Chaves, the candidate would have been chosen by a small circle of loyalists of the outgoing president: «Few know the State like her. He is aware of the place the knots are,” he stated.

During the electoral marketing campaign Fernández offered herself as a guarantor of political continuity, focusing above all on the problem of safety, in a rustic grappling with a rise in violence linked to drug trafficking. His agenda consists of measures impressed by the “Bukele model”: a state of emergency in high-crime areas, non permanent restrictions on civil liberties and the development of a high-security mega-prison modeled after the Salvadoran CECOT. An strategy that has raised robust criticism from the opposition and sectors of civil society, involved a few attainable focus of government energy and the erosion of democratic ensures.

On a political degree, Fernández has rejected accusations of being a “puppet” of the outgoing president, whereas brazenly claiming his loyalty to the Chavista challenge. “The change will be profound and irreversible,” he declared in entrance of supporters in San José, saying the beginning of a “third republic” and symbolically decreeing the top of the political construction born after the 1948 civil struggle.