The right wins in Ecuador and interrupts the long hegemony of the left in government in the Andean country since 2007. The new president is Giullermo Lasso, banker, conservative, anti-abortionist, opposed to gay unions, anchored in religious circles.
Ecuador therefore turns the page and does so in a radical and unexpected way. All the polls indicated the triumph of the progressive front candidate Andrés Arauz, the dolphin of former president Rafael Correa, who had fled to Belgium after a final sentence for corruption. He had prevailed in the first round and was 12 points ahead of his opponent. But in the ballot on Sunday the predictions were reversed. With 98.4 percent of the ballots scrutinized, Lasso obtained 52.5 percent of the votes while Arauz stopped at 47.5.
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His victory is not just a hard blow for Correa who had staked everything on his man to leave the exile guaranteed by his Belgian wife and return to his homeland to dive back into the political arena. It has a strong impact on the region and interrupts the new political course that sees the left return to power after five years of absence, with the affirmation of Alberto Fernández in Argentina and Luis Arce, del Mas di Morales, in Bolivia.
“On May 24th we will take up the challenge of changing Ecuador responsibly,” Lasso promised in front of an enthusiastic crowd. She called for reconciliation but also warned the feminist movement, increasingly active in the country, that it will not give in on the values it considers fundamental. “I appeal to young pregnant women. With my wife we will protect them so that they continue to study in schools and universities ”. Then he raised his gaze and his arms to heaven and turned to God: “I thank God for all the blessings he has granted me throughout my life. I ask God to give us the patience and the certainty to obtain the happiness of the Ecuadorians ”. Finally he shouted to his supporters: “May God protect Ecuador”.
The banker took advantage of the clash between for and against Correa, the bulky figure who has dominated, albeit from a distance, the political scene in recent months. He recalled his authoritarian thrusts, fear “of disagreeing with the president”, he invited Ecuadorians “to express their opinions in complete freedom”. He recalled that unlike the former leader of the left, “I did not enter politics either to enrich myself or to persecute someone”. Andrés Arauz acknowledged the defeat but did not want to call his opponent to congratulate him. Speaking to his supporters, he invited the elected president “to respect the rule of law, avoiding criminalizing those who follow different values”.
To weigh on the defeat of the progressive candidate was the vote of the disappointed in politics who in the first round had focused on the indigenous Pachakutik party, led by Yaku Pérez and on Xavier Hervas, of the Democratic Left. The natives of Pérez will still be decisive in Parliament. They represent the second force: they have 27 seats, while that of Lasso has only 12. They will affect those called to manage the end of the pandemic and restart Ecuador.
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