According to President Leonel Fernandez, remarks made by Senate president Andres Bautista during his speech at the National Assembly last 27 February, were “absolutely unfair and inappropriate”. The President also believes that it was not the right moment for the sort of judgment issued by Bautista, who was not speaking as Senate president but rather as a member of a political party. On that occasion, Bautista accused Fernandez of degrading the political debate. Fernandez was interviewed by TV journalist Yolanda Martinez on Channel 15. In his further analysis of the alleged “degrading” of the political debate of which he is accused, the President said Bautista referred to his remarks when he said that “there is an oligarchy of iron in a party that is imposing the tyranny of the majority in Congress”. The President asked whether that could be considered a degradation of political debate. He said he did not think so, as the concept was first mentioned by Plato and has reappeared throughout political literature since then. “If that is degrading the political debate then the Dominican Republic has a very sophisticated political debate… if giving it academic content can be considered degrading”, said Fernandez. “We must truly be living in a world in which no one knew we lived in the Dominican Republic”, he added. “What I can say is that I have never disqualified anyone by calling them ‘dribblers’ because that is not our style” said the President in reference to derogatory epithets for political opponents such as ‘baboso’, often used by former President Hipolito Mejia while he was in office.