Agreement between PLD and PRD closes a cycle of political antagonism

SANTO DOMINGO. Today seals what for some is the exile of the political leadership of the party with the longest record in the current political system, the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD), with 75 years of history in the Democratic struggles since before the fall of the dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina.

Tonight, the PRD President, Miguel Vargas, will explain details and reasons for which he finally decided to carry out an election alliance with the party which is been one of his two principal opponents since the internal division which happened on 15 December 1973. The conversations which it taken place between the commissions of the Dominican Liberation Party and the PRD have placed on the table the support so that the previously opposing party will retain 58 mayors which it won in 2010 and can conserve some 42 deputies that remained in the party after the formal division in 2014.

It was also suggested that they create at least two new provinces: West Santo Domingo and North Santo Domingo, to which they would put the names of Juan Bosch and José Francisco Peña Gomez, a point that was revealed by the Diario Libre and which caused outbursts and rejection in political and social sectors.

The Secretary-General of the PLD, Reinaldo Pared Perez, has been very closed mouth with respect to the pact, but he did say that the agreement will be in all levels, the presidential, congressional and municipal. It is expected also that several leaders of the PRD will enter Medina's cabinet, which will undergo several changes, although not the key positions in his administration.

If this alliance finally drags in the Social Christian Reformist Party (PRSC), as everything points to, a cycle of political antagonism will come to an end between the three political parties that where the protagonist in the post - Trujillo democracy.

For the PRD members that favor the agreement, this step was the correct one at the political moment which the country is undergoing, marked by the eminent re-nomination of President Danilo Medina and the sustained growth of the opposition candidacy of Luis Abinader as its principal leader. The PRD members in favor of the agreement with the PLD argue that they tried to approach the PRM and Abinader, but they received were rejected by the principle leaders of this new party.