Peru's prime minister challenged the opposition-ruled Congress on Wednesday to continue with their recent dismissals and dismiss his entire cabinets after plans were revealed that the lawmakers were attempting to oust a third minister, according to Reuters.
That move from Congress could allow President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski to have the power to call for new legislative elections while the Prime Minister Fernando Zavala, who also doubles as the finance minister, accused Congress of sabotaging the government's education reforms by preparing the censure of the second education minister within a year.
The president has the power to constitutionally dissolve Congress if on two separate occasions it votes to dismiss the cabinet.
“We’re presenting this question of confidence because nothing and no one should undermine the implementation of state policies,” Zavala said in televised comments as he read from a prepared statement, flanked by the rest of the cabinet.
If Congress does not dismiss the cabinet, Kuczynski, whose approval rating has plummeted to around 20% in recent polls, would have to appoint 19 new ministers.
However, the move would give him a freer hand in governing by forcing lawmakers to risk losing their seats if they threaten to censure another minister.
A prime minister in Peru has not challenged Congress to renew its confidence in a cabinet in decades, according to political analyst Fernando Tuesta, who pointed at how quickly relations between Congress and the executive branch have deteriorated under Kuczynski's leadership.
Kuczynski only took office last year after beating the assumed favorite, Keiko Fujimori, the oldest daughter of the jailed former leader Alberto Fujimori.
However, Kuczynski's party only won around 15 percent of congression seats in Congress, while Fujimori's party, Popular Force, won the absolute majority.
Popular Force lawmakers have denied they are obstructing the government’s plans and called on Education Minister Marilu Martens to resign after being unsuccessful in negotiating a for a faster end to a teachers strike that lasted for more than 2 months.
Martens was appointed in December after the previous education minister, Jaime Saavedra, had been fired by Congress only five months into Kuczynski's term.
When Saavedra was fired, some Kuczynski supporters called on the president to turn the censure into a vote of confidence in the cabinet in order to defend the education minister, who is now a senior education director at the World Bank, and to limit the opposition’s powers.
-WN.com, Maureen Foody
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