Rafael López Aliaga, leader of the Renovación Popular party and a candidate for mayor of Lima, said his party would give President Keiko Fujimori's government full backing on its request for special legislative powers only on matters of extreme urgency, distancing his lawmakers from parts of the bill now being debated in Peru's Chamber of Deputies.
López Aliaga said there were some rules in the bill that his party disliked. He said Renovación Popular would give its complete support, in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, to anything that was truly urgent, but he questioned why the government wanted the power to eliminate the interest rate charged by banks. He asked what was so urgent about scrapping the bank interest rate and what that unusual measure was doing in the bill at all, arguing that Peru's real emergencies were the El Niño weather phenomenon, urban terrorism and the need to shrink the size of the state.
Renovación Popular's objections
Renovación Popular is a conservative party founded by López Aliaga, a businessman and former presidential candidate who is now seeking the Lima mayoralty. Fujimori, the daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori, has led the Fuerza Popular party for years. The special powers request would let her government pass laws directly in specific policy areas, with each sector voted on separately by lawmakers in committee before reaching the full Congress, which in the current term is split into a Chamber of Deputies and a Senate.
Emergency decrees versus special powers
López Aliaga argued that Fujimori should have turned to emergency decrees instead of requesting special powers, saying a Peruvian president already has that authority available. He said having six deaths a day, including the killing of leader Betssy Malca, was reason enough to invoke an emergency decree. He said that, with all due respect to the president, he had expected a package of emergency decrees, and that with the team she has, Fujimori needed to move quickly to equip police intelligence.
Committee votes in the Chamber of Deputies
Renovación Popular's deputies have been positioning themselves largely in favor of the powers request as the Chamber of Deputies' committees vote on reports recommending approval or rejection sector by sector. So far nine of the party's congresspeople have cast votes, eight in favor and one abstention.
Javier Cipriani voted in favor in the Science and Environment committees. José Baella and Gustavo Segura voted in favor in the working group on Defense, and Baella also backed the measure in the Justice Committee alongside Roxana Rocha. Frank Krklec and Félix Chang voted in favor in the Energy and Mines Committee, with Chang also supporting it in the Production and Labor committees. Carlos Yalta voted in favor in the Environment and Labor committees, and Leo de Paz did the same in Production. The exception was deputy Mady Yonz, who abstained in the Infrastructure Committee.
