Foreign Digest: Peru and Finland

Peru: Peru’s Marxist president was impeached earlier this year for violating the Constitution attempting to become a dictator. Not only the Congress and the Vice President, who succeeded him as President, but the military, police and civil society declined to acquiesce to the move toward authoritarianism, according to Nobel Prize-winning Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa in a column in Newsweek. As I have posted, this trend toward authoritarianism has become common among elected governments, especially in Latin America, inspired by late Socialist Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, such as in Russia and Turkey. Vargas notes the dictatorships of Venezuela, Communist Cuba and Marxist Nicaragua were among the leftist governments, including several elected ones, supporting the deposed Peruvian President and continuing to try to isolate Peru diplomatically. The United States, the European Union and other free States have supported the new President in the face of violent protests. As Peru returns to a degree of stability, elections are next scheduled in 2026. Vargas warns of an attempt from the illiberal left to take over Peru that could cause an illiberal response from the authoritarian far right, as has been a common concern around the world. Finland: In the Finnish parliamentary elections last week, the main center-left party’s bloc lost a close three-way election to the conservatives. The liberals govern currently in a coalition with centrists. The popular center-left Prime Minister, widely hailed for her effective response against the Coronavirus Pandemic, and who led Finland’s successful membership application to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization that was completed last week, and its strong military and humanitarian support of Ukraine against Russian aggression, declined to stand for election. The center-right won the most votes and seats and the right to try to form a government, but were far short of a necessary majority. They will continue the same defense and foreign policy as the ruling coalition. The main issue in the campaign was welfare spending promoted by the liberals versus austerity promoted by the conservatives. The far-right anti-migrant Finnish party came in close second. With the close results and the divisions between the blocs, it is unclear how a coalition government will be formed.