A dual opposition. That is what President Mauricio Funes maintains he has faced since taking office exactly three years ago. The motivation for his comments was criticism emanating from the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN), the left-wing party which brought him to power, about his government’s economic policy. Funes’ electoral victory marked the first time the Left had ever come to power in El Salvador but the orthodox wing of the FMLN, which retains a tight grip on the party, believes Funes has prevented it from tasting ‘real’ power and wants its own man to stand for election in 2014. Municipal elections last March, and opinion polls, suggest this would be a sure-fire way to hand power back to the main right-wing opposition Alianza Republicana Nacionalista (Arena).
The relationship between Funes and the FMLN has been
uncomfortable over the course of his three years in power: Funes has entrusted the levers of economic power to close associates with moderate leftist views rather than FMLN party stalwarts. The FMLN clearly resented this and it has not always offered unqualified support for the President’s policy initiatives in the legislative assembly.
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