Economy Minister breaks with former president, a ‘messianic leader’

Santo Domingo.- Economy minister Temistocles Montas on Monday reiterated the description of his former boss and ex president Leonel Fernández as a “messianic leader,” despite working under him for more than 10 years.

He said however that his differences with Fernández are ideological rather than personal.

The official and ruling PLD party presidential hopeful, who’s been credited with the success in macroeconomic stability during Fernandez’s 12 years in office, said he has a marked difference on leadership with his former boss.

“I believe that president Fernández has a messianic vision of leadership and I don’t share that approach. Democracy, under any circumstances, doesn’t wager on messianic leaders because it has to sustain itself in alternative leadership and cannot convert a figure into a political chieftain or a providential man,” he said.

He said after so many years of having been taught by PLD founder Juan Bosch, it would be a “betrayal of his thinking.”

“My public differences with him haven’t fallen well with him (Fernandez), it hasn’t pleased him, but I had to express myself somehow. The PLD is a party of leaders rather than a leader,” Montas said, adding that he prefers president Danilo Medina’s style of governing over Fernandez’s.