Political analyst Rosario Espinal analyzes the three reasons for the continuing PLD governments and challenges ahead for the ruling political party, in a report published in Hoy on 7 February 2018. She writes that since 2004, the PLD has accumulated hegemonic power through extraordinary party discipline that has kept individual political ambitions at bay, the relative macroeconomic stability in the country and the dismantling of the opposition.
“Despite the scandalous acts of corruption, the PLD continues to benefit from the relative macro-economic stability and weakness of the opposition. But two serious problems lurk: the presidential aspirations for 2020 and the possibility of an eventual external debt crisis,” she writes.
She says that the party is currently in a frozen state, with Leonel Fernandez and Danilo Medina pulling at their sides to control the presidential candidacy for the 2020 election. “A defeat of Leonel Fernandez would be a big blow to him politically. A defeat of Danilo Medina would mean the return to power of groups that have opposed him, both inside and outside the PLD. The two party leaders are united by the fear of defeat and separated by their interest in controlling the PLD,” she writes.
She observes: “When partisan democracy is deficient, individualistic leadership is strengthened. The persistence of personal leadership in the PLD, and in other Dominican parties, is the clearest evidence of the lack of democratic development in the Dominican Republic.”
And she concludes: “This year will mark the course of the PLD: Who will win? How? At what cost?”
Read more in Spanish:
Hoy
8 February 2018
