Pedro Miguel: Cortizo removed Turner without consulting with the PRD leadership
Pedro Miguel González, secretary general of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) - in which President Laurentino Cortizo is active - confirmed that Rosario Turner was dismissed as Minister of Health.
Two days ago, the President of the Republic, without consulting the party leadership, on his own account, in the same way that he set up the government a year ago, he made the decision to remove the star player ... We are in a game, losing the game, we want to tie the score to overcome it and the team captain decided that his best player should leave the field, said González, in an interview with Radio Panama on Friday, June 26.
In the party it has caused shock, a lot of discomfort, and outside the party you have seen what happens on social networks, adding that Turner herself confirmed that Cortizo "took" her out of office by surprise. She found out a few minutes before the president's press conference, last Wednesday.
González acknowledged that "the world is not going to fall apart" because Turner was dismissed, although he predicted that the action will affect the image of the government and of the president himself. In politics, the mistakes one makes are paid, and gave as an example an error whose responsibility he decided to assume completely: the meeting of the PRD caucus on Thursday, June 18, in Parrillada Jimmy’s while the country was under quarantine for the virus. The Ministry of Health (Minsa) fined the party and the restaurant, with $ 50,000 each, for violating sanitary regulations.
We could have foreseen it. The mistake was not making the meeting, but not having given the explanations on time and choosing that place, he said. Now the PRD is collecting the $50,000 as donations, after the Electoral Court warned that the fine cannot be paid with the money from the electoral subsidy.
González also referred to the pre-recorded message transmitted to the country on May 15, in which Turner gave explanations on purchases of medical supplies and equipment managed by the Ministry of the Presidency, led by the Vice President of the Republic, José Gabriel Carrizo. Some of these purchases are investigated by the Public Ministry and public demands Carrizo's resignation as minister.
Turner's replacement, her deputy minister Luis Francisco Sucre , was the only unexpected change in the Cabinet. The rest are almost drawer adjustments, because it was not a secret that Markova Concepción did not feel "comfortable" as Minister of Social Development, and in the case of Inés Samudio, Minister of Housing until last Wednesday, it was known for several weeks that Deputy Minister Rogelio Paredes would replace her before July 1, when Cortizo completes the first of his five years in office.
In this regard, the secretary general of the PRD points out that in the first 10 months of this administration, a government has been seeking to divide the structure of the party. He says that could change.
From July 1, things will go differently and it must be understood that it is a team effort and that when you are President of the Republic, you must generate consensus not only with different sectors of society but with the political forces that brought you to the government. Now we are in that moment, González pointed out.
In the party it has caused shock, a lot of discomfort, and outside the party you have seen what happens on social networks, adding that Turner herself confirmed that Cortizo "took" her out of office by surprise. She found out a few minutes before the president's press conference, last Wednesday.
González acknowledged that "the world is not going to fall apart" because Turner was dismissed, although he predicted that the action will affect the image of the government and of the president himself. In politics, the mistakes one makes are paid, and gave as an example an error whose responsibility he decided to assume completely: the meeting of the PRD caucus on Thursday, June 18, in Parrillada Jimmy’s while the country was under quarantine for the virus. The Ministry of Health (Minsa) fined the party and the restaurant, with $ 50,000 each, for violating sanitary regulations.
We could have foreseen it. The mistake was not making the meeting, but not having given the explanations on time and choosing that place, he said. Now the PRD is collecting the $50,000 as donations, after the Electoral Court warned that the fine cannot be paid with the money from the electoral subsidy.
González also referred to the pre-recorded message transmitted to the country on May 15, in which Turner gave explanations on purchases of medical supplies and equipment managed by the Ministry of the Presidency, led by the Vice President of the Republic, José Gabriel Carrizo. Some of these purchases are investigated by the Public Ministry and public demands Carrizo's resignation as minister.
Turner's replacement, her deputy minister Luis Francisco Sucre , was the only unexpected change in the Cabinet. The rest are almost drawer adjustments, because it was not a secret that Markova Concepción did not feel "comfortable" as Minister of Social Development, and in the case of Inés Samudio, Minister of Housing until last Wednesday, it was known for several weeks that Deputy Minister Rogelio Paredes would replace her before July 1, when Cortizo completes the first of his five years in office.
In this regard, the secretary general of the PRD points out that in the first 10 months of this administration, a government has been seeking to divide the structure of the party. He says that could change.
From July 1, things will go differently and it must be understood that it is a team effort and that when you are President of the Republic, you must generate consensus not only with different sectors of society but with the political forces that brought you to the government. Now we are in that moment, González pointed out.