On August 9th, President Martin Vizcarra submitted four political and judicial reform bills to Congress so that they could be submitted to a referendum in December. However, almost 40 days after its presentation, no legislative progress had been made due to the parliamentary blockade caused by corruption scandals. After the Executive announced the presentation of a question of trust – a constitutional mechanism that could lead to the dissolution of Congress – Daniel Salaverry, the president of Congress, assured that the bills would be passed before October 4th.

The bills introduced by the Executive contemplate the Reform of the National Council of the Magistracy, bicameralism, the non-reelection of congressmen and a transparent system to finance  political parties. Although the Executive’s agenda has been centered on promoting preferential debate on these texts, before this week none of them had obtained an opinion from a Committee. On the contrary, in Vizcarra’s words: “(…) the congressmen tried to delay and denature the bills, with absurd modifications that, if approved, would transform them into useless and harmful laws for the country”.

Faced with this scenario, Vizcarra gave an ultimatum to Congress appealing to the question of trust, which is a mechanism through which Congress must decide whether to give its vote of confidence to the Government and its policies, or if it denies it. Considering that since Vizcarra’s announcement Congress passed one of the four bills, it is expected that once the anti-corruption package is passed, parliamentary work will resume without obstacles. Although the final text passed by the floor does not contemplate setting deadlines for passing the bills, the approval of the question of trust renews the commitment of congressmen to continue working in line with government policies.