President Leonel Fernández again invited leader of opposition party, the Partido Revolucionario Dominicano, Dr. José Francisco Peña Gómez, to participate in the National Dialogue, the series of talks the President is hosting all around the nation to gather a consensus as to the direction the nation should take into the 21st century. President Fernández invited Dr. Peña Gómez to give the closing speech of the event. Peña Gómez had rejected participating on grounds that the forum was being used for political campaigning reasons by the President and his party, the Partido de la Liberación Dominicana.
