Peru president, crying ‘coup,’ signals VPs would quit if he is ousted
LIMA: Peru’s President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski on Wednesday signaled both his vice presidents would resign if Congress forced him from office, calling an opposition bid to remove him a “coup” attempt that had to be resisted.
The rightwing populist party that controls Congress, Popular Force, aims to oust Kuczynski in a vote on Thursday on grounds he is “morally unfit” to govern, after finding he once had business connections with a company at the center of Latin America’s biggest graft scandal.
Kuczynski, who denies anything improper or illegal, said Popular Force was misusing its majority to attempt a power grab.
“The constitution and democracy are under attack. We’re facing a coup dressed in supposedly legitimate legal interpretations,” he said in a late night speech on national television.
“This is a conviction that my two vice presidents share, because neither wants to be part of a government born of an unjust and anti-democratic maneuver,” Kuczynski said.
He was flanked by First Vice President Martin Vizcarra and Second Vice President Mercedes Araoz.
If Kuczynski loses Thursday’s congressional vote to remove him and his two vice presidents depart as well, new presidential and legislative elections would be called.
A 79-year-old former Wall Street banker, Kuczynski has struggled to govern since winning last year’s presidential election but only a small share of congressional seats for his center-right party.
Popular Force says its efforts to remove him are well within the bounds of the constitution and key to its fight against corruption.
“He simply doesn’t care about the country,” Popular Force lawmaker Luz Salgado said after Kuczynski’s address. Earlier this week, Salgado called for Vizcarra to govern the country through 2021, when Kucyznski’s term ends.
Vizcarra and Araoz both pledged their loyalty to the center-right president on Wednesday but declined to comment on whether that meant they would resign if he was removed from office.