Mario Abdo and Wiens, at a time when the Minister of Public Works was the “dolphin”.
With just 4 days to define the new presidentialist, the ruling party launches a frantic search for the figure who will replace Hugo Velázquez.
After the resignation of Velázquez to his presidential candidacy, and against the clock with the electoral deadlines, the ruling party will plunge into a long weekend, to choose its new candidate for the presidential elections.
“This weekend is going to be very long, but we are sure that we are going to define it positively,” replied Dani Centurión, political adviser to the presidency, when asked about the start of the talks of the Abdism leadership, to decide the new presidentialist.
In the dance of possible names, a sector launches the name of the Minister of Public Works and Communications, Arnoldo Wiens, who was initially defined as Mario Abdo’s dolphin. But that status was crushed after the scandal of the “golden catwalk” was aired, whose cost of US$ 2 million, contrasted the 400 thousand dollars that private companies, they assure, cost the construction. Other public works, obscurely granted to the Engineering firm (the same one for the Ñandutí footbridge) notoriously devalue the head of Public Works.
From another internal faction of the ruling party, they are also considering launching the name of Lilian Samaniego. But the background of this one of hers, mainly in her hegemony in the IPS administration, make her a figure not only lacking in chances, but of much rejection within the republican nucleation.
The third who entered the shuffling of possibilities is the head of Congress, Oscar Cachito Salomón. The sector that makes up his political circle would present “credentials” to replace Velázquez.
The one who would have the chance to head the official plate is the one who until now was Velázquez’s number two, Juan Manuel Brunetti.
A debate around his figure, however, indicates that the ruling party could keep Brunetti in the same position as a candidate for Vice, and decide businessman Luis Pettengill for the presidency.
The wealthy businessman and former president of Cerro Porteño, was already “tested” at some point as a possible replacement for Velázquez, when he was still far below the polls.
Pettengill himself had indicated that he is not unrelated to his aspirations, accepting an eventual proposal to lead the ruling party’s presidential rank.
