Who is Efraín Alegre, the presidential candidate seeking to break the political hegemony in Paraguay?

Lawyer and politician, president of the traditional Authentic Radical Liberal Party, Alegre leads the presidential campaign for the Concertation of parties seeking to break the tradition of the Colorado Party at the head of the Lopez Palace.

Efraín Alegre Sasiain, 60 years old, is the candidate for president of Paraguay of the Concertación Nacional.

This conglomerate includes his party, the Partido Liberal Radical Auténtico (PLRA, center), and the Frente Guasú (left) for the next general elections on April 30.

A professional lawyer, educated at the Universidad Católica Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, Alegre was a national parliamentarian between 1998 and 2008 and presided over the Lower House between 1999 and 2003.

He was also a senator for the meager period of a month and a half, between July 1 and August 15, 2008.

“For me, studying law meant a youthful rebelliousness, and I thought it was an important instrument to fight against the dictatorship”, admitted the now presidential aspirant in an interview with the local ABC newspaper regarding Alfredo Stroessner’s regime.

Immediately after his time in the Paraguayan Senate, he resigned his seat to join the government of former President Fernando Lugo (2008-2012) as Minister of Public Works and Communications of Paraguay between 2008 and 2011.

He is the eighth of 12 children of a merchant and landowner from the department of Misiones (southeast).

He has been married since 1991 to Mirian Irún Aquino and has four children.

He recognizes himself as a Catholic, against equal marriage and abortion.

Alegre has been a presidential candidate on two previous occasions, always against the conservative and hegemonic Colorado Party (National Republican Association).

Representing the PLRA, he was defeated in the 2013 elections by the colorado ticket of Horacio Cartes and Juan Afara, who were elected with 45.68% of the electoral preferences. Alegre, accompanied by Rafael Filizzola, reached 37.11% of the votes.

During the 2018 general elections, Alegre ran for president accompanied by Hermes Rubín as members of the Great Renewed National Alliance.

They obtained 43.04% of the votes, which were insufficient to defeat the candidate of the Colorado Party and current president of Paraguay, Mario Abdo Benítez, who concentrated 46.42% of the preferences together with Vice President Hugo Velásquez, recently syndicated as “significantly corrupt” by the US Government.

For the elections of next April 30, Alegre is seconded in the presidential ticket by the civil engineer Soledad Núñez, a member of the Movimiento Despertar (center-right).

The coallition formula will face, among others, the economist Santiago Peña of the Colorado Party, a candidate for the Honor Colorado faction of former President Horacio Cartes (2013-2018).

“I, for my country, want something better. The people will be part of the government, as it should be. In my government, the people will be president of Paraguay”, reads the campaign slogan of the Alegre-Núñez formula, in a campaign openly against Carterismo, whose main axes are the fight against corruption, the generation of jobs and the construction of legal certainties to attract investment to the South American country.

With information from Sputnik