Giving the keynote speech during the opening of the VII Congress of the ruling Dominican Liberation Party, President Leonel Fernandez, who is also the party’s president, called on delegates to approve the norms in the party’s by-law reform bill, so as to guarantee the recovery of the party’s discipline and internal unity. “Only with the rescue of discipline can we rescue the unity and only with unity will we be in conditions to guarantee a better future for the country,” said Fernandez. Diario Libre comments that it was the first time that the President has mentioned the internal differences within his party in public. Fernandez said that the PLD is the only instrument that the Dominican society has to seriously and patriotically confront the national problems, and thus he warned that it could not be put into danger. He said that once the norms are passed, these would apply to all.