Danilo Medina

Danilo Medina (2012)

Danilo Medina Sánchez (born November 10, 1951 in Arroyo Cano, Bohechío, San Juan Province, in the southwest of the Dominican Republic ) is an economist and Dominican politician ( Partido de la Liberación Dominicana (PLD)). From 2012 to 2020 he was President of the Dominican Republic.

Prior to that, Medina served as the President's Chief of Staff (Ministro de la Presidencia) from 1996 to 1999 and from 2004 to 2006. He won the 2012 presidential election against Hipólito Mejía from the Partido Revolucionario Dominicano (PRD) with 51.21% of the vote. In the presidential election on May 15, 2016, he was re-elected as leader of an electoral alliance against opposition leader Luis Abinader of the Partido Revolucionario Moderno (PRM) with 61.74% of the vote.

biography

Medina is the eldest of eight brothers; his parents are Juan Pablo Medina and Amelia Sánchez. As a student leader, he founded the representation in San Juan de la Maguana of the Frente Revolucionario Estudiantil Nacionalista of the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo (UASD). When Professor Juan Bosch founded the Partido de la Liberación Dominicana in 1973, Medina joined him. He studied economics at the Instituto Tecnológico Santo Domingo (INTEC), where he graduated magna cum laude in 1984 . In 1983 he became a member of the Central Committee of the PLD and in 1986 he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies ( lower house ). In 1987 he married the psychologist Cándida Montilla. With her he has three daughters, Sibeli, Vanessa and Ana Paula.

Danilo Medina Sánchez is the only Dominican president who descends directly from one of the three founding fathers of the Dominican Republic, the so-called Trinitaria. He is the great, great, great, grandson of Francisco del Rosario Sánchez .

Career during the 1990s and 2000s

In 1990 Medina was elected to the PLD Political Committee together with Leonel Fernández and Juan Temístocles Montás. In 1994/1995 he was President of the Chamber of Deputies (Cámara de Diputados, Lower House ), then from 1996 to 1999 and again from 2004 to 2006 Chief of Staff of President Leonel Fernández.

As President of the Chamber of Deputies, he was a key figure in solving the political blockade of 1994. In the presidential election at that time, Joaquín Balaguer from the Partido Reformista Social Cristiano (PRSC) won over José Francisco Peña Gómez from the Partido Revolucionario Dominicano (PRD) a serious conflict because both sides accused each other of election fraud. The solution to the problem consisted of an agreement that presidential and congressional elections (Chamber of Deputies and Senate) would in future be held separately, alternately every two years (now they are held together again), that an absolute majority of the votes in the first ballot for an election is necessary and that an immediate re-election of the president was excluded (in the meantime the one-time direct re-election was from 2003 to 2010 and is allowed again from 2015). The term of office of Balaguer was only two years in 1994, which also corresponded to a demand of the USA. The deal ultimately proved beneficial to the PLD in the 1996 presidential election. Its candidate Leonel Fernández beat the PRD candidate, José Francisco Peña Gómez, in the second ballot.

Medina is considered the leading political strategist and negotiator of the PLD. As such, he was one of the leading directors of Leonel Fernández's 1996 presidential campaign and then his main adviser as chief of staff. When Leonel Fernández was no longer allowed to run in the 2000 presidential election due to the ban on immediate re-election, the PLD ported Medina as its official candidate. However, he lost the first ballot with only 24.9% against Hipólito Mejía, who reached 49.87%. Because he did not receive unreserved support from third-placed Joaquín Balaguer and thus saw no possibility of winning the election, Medina did not run for a runoff. In the speech in which he declared that he would not be doing it, he said that a runoff election would not be in the country's interest given the high costs.

In 2003, the ruling PRD enforced the option of immediate (one-time) re-election to allow President Hipólito Mejía to run again. However, he lost the election to his predecessor Leonel Fernández, who was elected for a second term (after his first from 1996 to 2000) and who in turn appointed Medina as his chief of staff. As such, Medina was considered the second most important man in the government.

In the 2008 presidential election , Leonel Fernández was able to run for president again thanks to the immediate re-election that was allowed again. The supporters of Medina did not agree, which made an internal party election to determine the official candidate of the PLD necessary. Medina resigned as chief of staff on November 8, 2006 in order to be able to devote herself to the party's internal campaign against Leonel Fernández. He led these under the titles "Ahora Es" ("Now is the time") and "Lo Mejor Para Todos" ("The best for everyone"). Medina lost the internal election against Fernández, however, on May 6, 2007 with only 28.45% of the vote against Fernández '71.55%. In a public address, Medina complained that "the state" had beaten him, alluding to the fact that government resources had been used to defeat him.

After that, it became quiet for Medina and his supporters, although he was considered the likely candidate of the PLD for the 2012 presidential election and a favorite there. In 2010 the immediate re-election of the president was banned again.

President of the Dominican Republic

President Medina swearing in his cabinet on August 16, 2012

In 2012, as expected, Danilo Medina ran as the official candidate of the PLD. He won the presidential election on May 16, 2012 with 51.21% of the vote in the first ballot ahead of Hipólito Mejía, who got 46.95%. Leonel Fernández's wife, Margarita Cedeño de Fernández, was elected Vice-President.

During the campaign, Medina was accused of plagiarism at his university degree by Professor Génove Gneco, coordinator of the office against plagiarism in theses of the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo (UASD). Gneco also made the same allegation against Senator Félix Bautista and Minister of Public Affairs Juan Temístocles Montás. He was later removed from office because he had exceeded his competencies and because he could not substantiate his allegations.

As president, Medina vowed to fight corruption, create jobs and invest in the education of the population. Medina subsequently gained a high reputation both at home and abroad, where he is considered the most popular head of government in Latin America. The PLD thus had an interest in Medina being able to stand for re-election in 2016, and in 2015 brought a constitutional amendment through which in turn allowed the immediate (one-time) re-election of the president. Against this, the supporters of the former President Leonel Fernández, who wanted to nominate him as a presidential candidate, initially resisted, and even Medina resisted this, referring to the traditional rejection of his party against immediate re-election.

In the end, however, he faced the presidential election on May 16, 2016 and won it as a huge favorite with 61.74% of the votes in the first ballot, clearly ahead of Luis Abinader, who achieved 34.98%. Abinader's party Partido Revolucionario Moderno (PRM) split off from the Partido Revolucionario Dominicano (PRD) in 2014, prompting them to join the electoral alliance of the PLD, his former opponent. The PRD contributed 5.85% to the winning election result.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Edwin Espinal: Genealogía materna del presidente Danilo Medina. In: Hoy. August 31, 2012.
2. ^ David Gonzalez: Dominican Wins Presidency As Opponent Shuns Runoff. In: New York Times . May 19, 2000.
3. ↑ Informe de Observación del Congreso del Partido de la Liberación Elector Dominicana (PLD) ( Memento of 14 May 2008 at the Internet Archive ). In: Participación Ciudadana. May 7, 2007.
4. ↑ Abel Guzmán Then: Gallup otorga a Danilo 62.1%, a Hipólito un 52.6% ya Amable un 51.8%. In: Listín Diario. February 23, 2011.
5. ↑ ^{a b} Amalfi Eguren: Hoy es el Día de la Constitución. In: Listín Diario. November 6, 2010.
6. ↑ Boletín Nacional Electoral No. 11 ( Memento of May 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) of the Junta Central Electoral. May 21, 2012.
7. ↑ Dominican Republic: Government candidate wins. In: The press . May 21, 2012.
8. ↑ The dilemmas facing Danilo Medina, the new president of the Dominican Republic ( Memento from July 15, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ). In: Univision. May 21, 2012.
9. ↑ Cancelan profesor por decir que Danilo, Félix Bautista y Temístocles plagiaron tesis ( Memento of October 19, 2013 in the Internet Archive ). In: Acento. February 8, 2012.
10. ↑ Tjerk Brühwiller: President Medina confirmed in office. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . May 16, 2016.
11. ↑ Boletín Nacional Electoral No. 14 ( Memento of the original from May 31, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. the Junta Central Electoral (PDF; 50 kB). May 28, 2016. 

Web links

• Website of Danilo Medina
• Biography at CIDOB

predecessor	Office	successor
Leonel Fernández	President of the Dominican Republic August 16, 2012 - August 16, 2020	Luis Abinader