Tuesday’s day of protest was a success, is the consensus in today’s newspapers. Even the government is conceding that the strike was irreproachable and represented a legitimate expression of protest. Vice-President Milagros Ortiz Bosch went as far to say that the government owed the people an apology: “It was a protest that revealed a real situation, for which I would like to give my repeated apologies to the Dominican people.” Hatuey Decamps, while denying that he had supported the protests, said that the strike was “a firm demonstration of the people’s rejection of the government’s economic policies, the power cuts, the high cost of living, increased interest rates, the price of chicken and expensive education.” Opposition PLD general secretary Reinaldo Pared Perez said, “The people as a whole are saying ‘no’ to the government’s economic policies.” He then expressed hope that the strike action would help the authorities realize they are on the wrong track. Pared Perez called on the government to ease the dollar-peso exchange rate, reduce the price of fuel, food, and electricity and put an end to the power cuts. Private business association CONEP president Elena Viyella de Paliza said that Tuesday’s strike should lead the government to contemplate the direction of their economic policies, and she expressed hope that the success of the protest would result in the government sitting round the table to discuss solutions to the country’s problems. This view is shared by Monsignor Agripino Nunez Collado, who said that the government had to be open to alternatives in order to avoid disaster. The President rejected the strike organizing committee’s call for a 30-day period in which the government must comply with its demands. Hipolito Mejia said that this was “unacceptable” and expressed his relief that the day of protest passed relatively peacefully.