QCOSTARICA – The ability of the government to approve new taxes, in vitro fertilization (IVF) and gay marriages in this second year was diluted with the election PUSC legislator Rafael Ortiz to chair the Legislative Assembly for the 2015-2016 session.
With Ortiz, the government and the Partido Accion Cuidana (PAC) lose control of the Legislature to a coalition made up of PLN (Partido Liberacion Nacional), ML (Movimiento Libertario) legislators and PUSC (Partio Unidad Social Cristiana). The PUSC bloc is made of Renovación Costarricense, Alianza Demócrata Cristiana and Restauración Nacional legislators.
The ruling PAC had expected to re-elect Henry Mora after a failed bid by Otton Solis, to lead the Legislature in the second year and overturn the last hour agreement reached by the opposition, which excluded the FA (Frente Amplio).
The opposition was able to form an alliance in the last couple of days, thanks to what can be considered as PAC party infighting led by legislator and former presidential candidate Solis. Thursday night, President Solis confirmed his support for Mora, leaving legislator Solis, who believed he counted with enough party support and legislative votes, at the door.
Loss of control of the Legislature is a tough loss for President Luis Guillermo Solis, and starting his second year with a revamped cabinet.
With the opposition in control of the Legislative Agenda and Legislative Committees, such as the Financial Affairs Committee (Comisión de Asuntos Hacendarios), it will favour greatly oppositors to the Value Added Tax (VAT) and the tough financial budget cuts announced by the government.
“With maturity and patriotism we must take on the challenge. For the PUSC the main thing is a work agenda, which gives Costa Rica direction and in that sense, we will do it with the support of the other parties, ” said Ortiz after being elected.
Control of the Legislative Assembly by the opposition also means a possible stop to the proposals promoting gay marriages and In-Vitro Fertilization.
In his May report to the Legislative Assembly Friday afternoon, President Solis made it clear that for Costa Rica awaits a difficult year as a result of government fiscal imbalance.
“The consequences of not solving the gap between revenues and government spending, are a low growth of the economy, a decline in domestic investment and rising unemployment,” said Solis.
As difficult as it might be for the Government to do legislative business going forward, in my opinion, the loss of control of the Directorate of the Legislature by PAC, is a good development for Costa Rica. As PAC is no longer in control of the Legislative Assembly, President Solis will be forced to present draft legislation for consideration in a more politically centrist format, in-keeping with the ideology of the members of the Directorate now in control, to have any opportunity of it passing in the Legislature. The new President of the Directorate of the Legislature has stated that his aim of addressing increased Government revenues will not be to increase taxes in the immediate future, but to cut Government Public Sector spending. I believe that this is the correct approach in order to stimulate the domestic economy and to particularly increase foreign investment, which is an essential ingredient for the well-being of the Costa Rica lifestyle.
I agree that they need to close the deficit spending by cutting spending and closing loopholes in the revenue streams to the government. They need to cut the monopolies which are not competitive and thus make the cost of doing business or investing in the country too high. Look what has happened with competition in cellphone service, cable television and internet service? Prices came down and service has got better (?).
Government needs to learn to live with the monies they collect and not finance the future for the present. The ONLY time governments should borrow IS to invest in the future growth and development of the country by building and maintaining the infrastructure necessary to allow for private investment. It is not wise to go into debt to finance wage and benefit increases to politicians and bureaucrats for that leads to a black hole which can never be filled. Make tough decisions, be a leader and learn to live within their means.
To my mind, the most revealing point about this is that the PLN has allied itself with two conservative parties (ML and PUSC) to create a conservative bloc, which forces the PAC and FA into a leftist bloc by default.
Looked at in terms of political ideology, this is an unnatural division. Historically, the PLN was a center-left party, and throughout the Chinchilla administration it still described its political philosophy as social democracy. True, many suspected that the PLN had really taken a rightward turn and was only paying lip service to social democracy, but this may be the most visible occasion in which it has taken a solid symbolic step to the right.
Meanwhile, the PAC grew out of the PLN, and pretty much shared the same social democratic philosophy. President Solis explains his defection from the PLN not as a result of a difference in political philosophies but as a result of his disgust over PLN corruption. Sure, the PAC probably ended up veering a little farther left than the PLN in its formation during the campaign of Otton Solis against the free-trade treaty, but Otton Solis has led the right-leaning fight in the legislature against PAC President Solis’ budget.
Since both the PLN and PAC and centrist parties in Costa Rica (center-left from a US standpoint) and are almost impossible to distinguish on the basis of differences in political philosophy, the PLN’s alliance with the conservative parties against the PAC (and FA) can only be construed as a brazen political move in the worst sense of that term. That is, the PLN is plainly hoping to weaken the PAC in order for it to have a better chance of winning the next election.
As such, the PLN is revealing itself to be a distinctly unprincipled and ruthless party, and I hope the voters take note.