Madrid, Spain.- The former Dominican president, Leonel Fernandez(1996-2000. 2004-2012), warned this Monday that the incorrect decisions made by the current Dominican Government will generate an increase in unemployment and will cause the countryside to fall into ruins.
Fernández, who leads the Fuerza del Pueblo (FP) party, made these statements when leading a swearing-in ceremony for new members of the organization in the city of Madrid.
The leader of the opposition party reiterated his disagreement with the excessive imports of finished products such as milk.
You may also like: Leonel says electricity rate impoverishes people
“In the Dominican Republic there is no need to import milk, because we have livestock there,” he emphasized, adding that these imports affect ranchers. According to his words, this causes “unemployment to increase and the countryside to fall into ruin.”
During his speech, the former President of the Republic explained that, although the importation of rice has been established, it is a mistake for the government to order the importation of cereal to the Dominican market at the time of the spring harvest, because this coincidence it causes prices to collapse, facing inflation, but bankrupting Dominican producers. “He even lacks the common sense to know that national production cannot enter at the same time as rice imports from abroad,” he said.
“The Dominican Government does not present an acceptable, tangible solution to the population’s problems, it does not recognize that the country is in crisis. Since he came to power he has been in a difficult situation, they distort economic information by saying that in 2021 growth was 12.3%, when no one in the world grew that amount. When you compare that 12.3% of 2021 with the minus 8 (decrease) of 2020, you will realize that real growth is 4.3%, presenting what is called a statistical rebound in economics, not organic growth, ”he assured.
“In the month of April of the year 2021, the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic announces a growth of 47%, when no one in the world, at any time in history, has grown that amount, what happens is that the information, to confuse the population, and it is not said that in April 2020 we decreased by less than 29%, how from that figure you go to 47%, it is because it is a statistical rebound, ”said the president of the FP.
In the continuity of his criticism of the current government management, Fernández said that “For the Dominican Government, things are as good as possible, and it is not like that, and since it is not like that, they will never find the solution to the great national problems.”
He stated that “inflation in the Dominican Republic is higher than in 32 countries in the region, and the Dominican President does not recognize it. The People’s Force recognizes that our country is in crisis and that we will get out of it when we are a government in 2024”.
“A fundamental element in the framework of the Dominican crisis is food security and sovereignty. What most affects the population are the high prices of food such as chicken, pork, beef, milk, basic foods. The import policy of these products severely affects local production, to the detriment of our producers. In our government we will authorize the import of raw material to be converted into final products and favor our producers who are now going bankrupt due to massive and expensive imports,” said Fernández.
Before the hundreds of Dominicans from the diaspora, the former Dominican president recognized the sincerity with which the head of government, Pedro Sánchez, spoke to the Spanish people about the crisis and its effects for that European nation. “This is how a president speaks, recognizing that there are problems, and expressing the decision together, as a people, to be able to solve them, that is what the People’s Force will do as of 2024,” he said.
oaths
The ranks of FP continue to grow, this time corresponding abroad, where the former overseas deputy for the ruling Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM), Agustín Mercedes Moscat, together with hundreds of Dominicans who filled the main hall of the UGT in Madrid, they joined the ranks of the opposition organization.
In the activity carried out in the great hall of the General Union of Workers (UGT), the space was small to accommodate the new members of FP, many of whom had to remain standing or on the outskirts of the hall, according to a statement .
The secretary of Dominicans abroad of the People’s Force and former deputy Marcos Cross, said that “In the old house, we always overflowed this place, but the People’s Force today has shown that we have regained control of Europe.”
Fernández is in Spain where he has participated in various academic and political activities, accompanied by the general secretary of the FP, Antonio Florián (Peñita) and several members of the organization’s Political Directorate.
