President Leonel Fernandez has lined up work with the United Nations after his third term as President ends on 16 August 2012, he told the press at a luncheon held on Friday, 29 June at the Presidential Palace, prior to his leaving for a 10-day European tour.
As reported in Listin Diario, his agenda for the future includes working with the United Nations to draft guidelines for a convention against financial speculation in food commodities, and another two initiatives that seek to cultivate improved trade relations between Europe, the Arab world and Latin America.
On the local front, he has set himself the goal to promote a re-structuring of the PLD political party that he leads and that remains as the ruling party. The re-structuring will focus on promoting modern leaders and communication with followers. The President has observed that action is needed to counteract the decline in the party’s following, compared to the opposition PRD party.
In September and November Fernandez will travel to Europe and Dubai to join two independent task forces promoting inter-regional plans and attracting large investments from Europe and the United Arab Emirates to development projects with funds that would be managed by the Inter-American Development Bank and other Latin American financing agencies, Listin Diario reports.
The President will be involved in follow up actions to the resolution “Addressing Excessive Price Volatility in Food and Related Financial and Commodity Markets” that was introduced at the United Nations by President Leonel Fernandez in December 2011 and was adopted by consensus, and a draft of an international convention against financial speculation and mechanisms that will be put in place to prevent world economies from entering into crisis for the domino effect of collapses caused by raw material, energy and stock market futures.
The President, as reported in the newspaper, said that for the moment he is not considering the possibility of seeking the PLD candidacy in 2016. He says this would be premature. His wife, nevertheless, was elected Vice President and has announced that the Solidarity welfare programs now under Vice President Rafael Alburquerque and the Progresando programs she managed at the Office of the First Lady will be merged and she will be heading both.
Fernandez told the press that he is most pleased with having promoted national dialogue that resulted in the approval of a new Constitution and the Santo Domingo metro. His major disappointment is the poverty that still prevails.
Attending the press conference were Adriano Miguel Tejada, Diario Libre; Osvaldo Santana, El Caribe; Miguel Franjul; Bolivar Diaz Gomez, El Nacional. Also TV analysts Oscar Medina, Luisin Mejia, Freddy Sandoval, Danny Alcantara, Pablo McKinney, Ramon Nunez Ramirez.
As reported in Hoy on Sunday, 1 July, there is concern over a series of recent measures that are said to affect Danilo Medina’s presidency. Hoy refers to the supplementary budget that will increase the fiscal deficit to more than RD$100 billion, including taking on new debt totaling more than US$2 billion. The Fernandez administration is also being criticized for deciding on capital investments that will be made in the next few years when his government is about to end.
The Executive Branch announced it was accepting a request by the bicameral commission of the Congress that is studying the supplementary budget to eliminate Art. 8 that requested Congress to authorize the negotiation of loans for US$1.6 billion to be used for infrastructure. The article was changed and now authorizes the Executive Branch to take responsibility for the Banco de Reservas loans taken by the Central Electoral Board for RD$270 million for the 2012 presidential election.
The Fernandez administration increased the supplementary budget from RD$51.3 billion to RD$71.4 billion in order to assign RD$19.2 billion to obligations with the Treasury, Public Health, and the Executive Branch. Of the RD$71.4 billion, the Presidency will receive RD$8.3 billion, the Ministry of Public Works RD$21.5 billion, Public Health and Treasury RD$21 billion. Because the PLD controls the Congress, the bill is expected to be passed.
As reported in Diario Libre, the PRD economic commission said that the request for the RD$71 billion supplementary budget confirms the government’s excessive spending during the electoral campaign. The PRD says that the PLD spent more than RD$61 billion to back PLD candidate Danilo Medina’s campaign.
Writing in Hoy on Sunday, 1 July, journalist Juan Bolivar Diaz says that the President’s 10-day trip to Europe, which ends on 10 July, plus the start of a campaign in favor of his return to government a month and a half prior to the end of his eight consecutive years in government, creates uncertainty even within the ruling PLD and those close to President-elect Danilo Medina.
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