Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori is facing growing criticism over her effectiveness as head of state, according to columnist Mirko Lauer, who argued in a piece for La República that her administration's troubles show she is struggling to manage Congress.
Lauer wrote that this was only half unexpected. During the years Fujimori controlled successive majorities in Congress, her lack of governing skill did not show, because what she was doing then was not really governing but keeping rivals tightly contained. Now, he wrote, she is finding out that leading from the opposition benches and leading a government are two very different things.
Sending a request for delegated legislative powers to Congress without first securing an agreement was a mistake that remains unresolved, Lauer wrote. He said the opposition now has Fujimori cornered in the same spot where her Fuerza Popular party once cornered previous governments, and that the episode shows Fuerza Popular's own lawmakers in Congress are not especially effective either.
Background on Keiko Fujimori
Keiko Fujimori is the daughter of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori and has led Fuerza Popular, one of Peru's main conservative parties, for years. Fuerza Popular has long held significant blocs in Congress, giving Fujimori considerable influence over past administrations before she came to lead the government herself.
Doubts Over Cabinet Appointments
Lauer wrote that the problem predates the delegated-powers episode. There is a perception, he said, that Fujimori's appointments, to the extent they can even be called appointments, leave much to be desired. He noted that Fuerza Popular, as an organized party, had ample time to identify suitable people ahead of an expected election victory. Instead, he wrote, the current cabinet looks like an emergency collection of people borrowed from all over.
As a result, Lauer said, no one has anything good to say about the government's performance at the starting gate on the two politically decisive issues of the moment: the El Niño weather phenomenon and crime. He wrote that official trips involving handing out caps do not add up to a coherent policy, and that reshuffling senior police commanders is not, on its own, a strategy against corruption within the National Police at any level.
Upcoming Visits by Rubio and Pope Leo XIV
Lauer wrote that Fujimori is about to get two contrasting publicity boosts, from visits by United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Pope Leo XIV. Rubio has served as the top American diplomat under President Donald Trump, while Leo XIV, elected pope in 2025, was the first pope from the United States.
Lauer said it was unlikely either visit would improve Fujimori's approval ratings in opinion polls, since the image of a weak governing performance has taken hold of public opinion in a very short time. Even her own supporters, he wrote, acknowledge that something is going wrong.
What Lauer Says Fujimori Needs
Asking what should be done, Lauer wrote that keeping the current cabinet unchanged will not make things better. He said threats to shut down Congress might intimidate lawmakers, but that such threats ultimately weaken and isolate the executive branch. What Fujimori urgently needs, he argued, is a first-rate prime minister and ministers who do not hire their relatives.
Without political capacity there is no way to accumulate power, Lauer wrote, and without power there is no way to carry out reforms. Without reforms, he said, the country's problems will simply continue as they are. He wrote that people are increasingly asking themselves whether Fujimori governs the way her father did, and if not, who exactly is running the government.
