The president of Peru’s Congress, the right-wing José Jerí, took office in the early hours of this Friday (10) as interim president of the country after the lightning dismissal to which the Legislature itself subjected President Dina Boluarte suddenly and by a large majority.
The Peruvian parliament swore in Jerí as head of state until the next general elections, called for April 2026, as contemplated by the Constitution in case the president does not have vice-presidents, as happens with Boluarte, who was the vice-president of the leftist Pedro Castillo, also dismissed at the end of 2022.
Jerí, 38 years old, has been president of the Peruvian Congress since August, after arriving at Parliament as a substitute congressman in the 2021 elections, replacing former president Martín Vizcarra, who had been the parliamentarian with the most votes, but was unable to assume his seat due to being disqualified by Congress.
Moments earlier, leftist parliamentarian José Quito proposed to the Congress plenary that the Parliament’s board of directors be censured so that José Jerí would not assume the Peruvian presidency after the dismissal of Dina Boluarte.
“There came a time when the crisis boiled over, the great institutional failures were being demonstrated, the great absence of the State towards the majority of the population”, highlighted Quito when explaining his position, before saying that Boluarte’s dismissal “does not come alone”.
Quito added that, if Jerí remains in office and assumes the Peruvian presidency, his government “will not last a week in office, because it will be the streets that will take them out.”
Congress dismissed Dina Boluarte on Thursday night in a flash, after bringing together four vacancy motions (dismissal) to declare her “permanent moral incapacity” to face the growing insecurity and the spread of criminal activities in the country.
The Peruvian Legislature approved the four motions to remove Boluarte from power with 122 votes in favor of a total of 130, a number much higher than the 87 necessary for the initiative to be successful, in a session where the president did not appear in the plenary to exercise her defense, which led Jerí to announce the decision to continue with the impeachment process.
