After the elections in Costa Rica

Costa Rica will remain in the hands of a right-wing government in the future: on February 1, it was decided in the first round of elections that Laura Fernández will be the next president of the Central American country. The 39-year-old, who ran as a candidate for the right-wing PPSO, received 48 percent of the vote. Her party also won a clear majority of seats in parliament.

Fernández will succeed Rodrigo Chaves Robles, who is considered her mentor, as president. Under Chaves, there have been numerous attacks on democratic institutions and the independence of the judiciary in recent years. His relatively young party, the PPSO (Partido Pueblo Soberano), unites right-wing conservative to libertarian forces and was able to score points in the recent elections, especially among less privileged social classes, with its focus on security policy and populist rhetoric. In contrast, the focus of the progressive forces in the opposition on democracy and the rule of law failed to convince.

Shortly after the election, Fernández announced her intention to restructure the Costa Rican state. One of her role models in this regard is Nayib Bukele, who is pursuing an authoritarian course in El Salvador with a heavy hand against organized crime. Daniel Mann of the IPG warns that “what's happening in Costa Rica is not an accident in an otherwise intact democracy, but the beginning of an authoritarian restructuring with a democratic mandate.”