Government softens as big business cranks the pressure

Santo Domingo.- After National Business Council presidentRafael Blanco called for reforms and said the country’s political system had collapsed, several business and industrial associations expressedtheir support.

Government spokesman Roberto Rodriguez Marchena on Mondayaffirmed that the administration headed by president Danilo Medina agrees with Blanco’s positionthat the electoral law needs a reform, in addition to pending legislation onpolitical parties, Fiscal Responsibility, Fiscal Pact and on electoralinstitutions and government spending.

"We totally agree with the proposal the CONEP has made;perhaps what was wanted was to see a confrontation and chatter with theGovernment on Mr. Blanco’s statements, when there’s none. What Mr. Blanco has proposedis what we have been stating and what the law stipulates. That is, thatDominican society has been proposing that and the government totally agreeswith that," Rodriguez said.

The spat however, surged when ruling PLD party generalsecretary and National District senator Reinaldo Pared mocked Blanco’sobservation, hinting that “perhaps the CONEP president’s candidate didn’t winthe elections.”

He said the Fiscal Responsibility Law is mandated by theNational Development Strategy, so the law’s development is part of the FiscalPact or the Comprehensive Tax Reform. “We’re in complete agreement: Danilohas been asking the same for a long while.

"So we totally agree. I also refer to the Electoral Reformbill and approval of a law on political parties. I can say with greatsatisfaction that one of the politicians who most responsibly and the earliest,remember in the nineties, Danilo Medina proposed the need for Parties Law toallow simultaneous primaries with controls on the issue of economic resources;I remember it perfectly then. "