Peru: in the middle of “Rolexgate”, the Prime Minister asks for the confidence of Parliament

The new Prime Minister of Peru, Gustavo Adrianzén will request a vote of confidence in Parliament on Wednesday at a time when the government a scandal linked to &agrav; luxury watches shakes the fragile government of President Dina Boluarte.

Mr. Adrianzén, a 57-year-old center-right lawyer, replaced Alberto Otarola in early March after the latter resigned due to an investigation into influence peddling.

The Peruvian Constitution provides that within thirty days of the appointment of the Prime Minister, he appears before Parliament to explain his general policy and request a vote of confidence.

The unicameral Parliament is controlled by a majority of right-wing and far-right parties, supporters of Ms. Boluarte. For him to obtain a vote of confidence, Mr. Adrianzén must collect half of the votes of the 130 members of Parliament plus one.

Everything suggests that the right will grant him. “We must grant a vote of confidence to guarantee governability. We are in a crisis situation,” MP Jorge Montoya, of the conservative Renovacion Popular party, assured the press.

This vote comes at a time when Ms. Boluarte is involved in several cases, the latest of which concerns alleged acts of illicit enrichment linked to Rolex watches that she is suspected of not having declared as part of her assets.

Peru's President Dina Boluarte in San Francisco, California, November 16, 2023 © AFP – JOSH EDELSON

His home in the suburbs of Lima as well as his presidential office were searched on Saturday as part of this affair. No watch was found and the prosecution ordered her to present them when summoned to court on Friday.

On Tuesday, Attorney General Juan Villena announced that the investigation now also focused on jewelry, including a bracelet worth $56,000, and bank deposits of some $270,000 between 2021 and 2022.

The scandal, dubbed by the press “Rolexgate”, broke out on March 15, when a news site published a series of photos showing Ms. Boluarte wearing different luxury watches while she was in government in 2021 and 2022.

– “political arena” –

Photo provided by the Peruvian presidency taken during the inauguration ceremony of the new Minister of the Interior, Walter Ortiz (d), in front of President Dina Boluarte, on April 1, 2024 in Lima © Peruvian Presidency – Luis Iparraguirre

Ms. Boluarte, whose popularity rating does not exceed 10% in surveys, assured that she had “clean hands” and only owned one watch.

In the wake of the searches, six of the 18 government ministers announced their resignations on Monday. If the Minister of the Interior cited “family problems”, those of Education, Women, Agrarian Development, Production and Foreign Trade provided no reason.

In the middle of the night, Ms. Boluarte administered the oath to the six new ministers appointed to replace the departing ones.

In the event of prosecution, under of the Constitution, she cannot be judged before July 2026, the date of the end of her mandate.

It is therefore in “the political arena, in Parliament, where will decide whether she remains in the presidency” or not, underlines analyst Augusto Alvarez Rodrich.

The opposition presented on Saturday a request for dismissal for “incapacity permanent morality. The motion, presented by Peru Libre, the left-wing party to which Ms. Boluarte belonged before becoming president, is supported by 30 parliamentarians. But to be admitted to the debate, she must collect more than fifty votes out of the 130.

This is the third request for dismissal presented by the left against Ms. Boluarte . None have yet been admitted to the debate.

Dina Boluarte is also the subject of an investigation for “genocide, aggravated homicide and serious injury” after the death of more than 50 people during the two months of social unrest which accompanied her accession to the head of state.

She became president after the dismissal in early December 2022 and the arrest of left-wing head of state Pedro Castillo, of whom she was vice-president.

Peru has had six presidents since 2016.

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