The presidential candidate for the Cambio Democrático (CD) party, Rómulo Roux, in a speech with proposals and some criticism of the government and his adversaries within the party, yesterday launched his political campaign for the primary elections on July 9.

In a political act attended by a considerable group of supporters, held in the historic Plaza de Santa Ana, Roux focused a large part of his speech on some of the proposals that, he assures, he will implement if he is elected president of the Republic in the elections of May 5, 2024.

He stated that as part of his preventive health plan he will implement a program that will be called: free medicines. “They are free medicines, we are going to have a list of medicines that are going to be free for the population.”

“You wonder how this is going to be paid for,” Roux said, noting that it will be paid for by cutting “the absurd budget for the National Assembly.”

“With that we are going to buy the medicines that all of you need. Here we are going to put an end to the cash back (form) 172 and 080 so that you have medicines […], we are also going to break all those bottles, all those jugs,” he said.

He argued that we deserve quality public services. “Every Panamanian has to have access to drinking water. We are going to reorganize the Idaan, we are going to create the Water Authority and we are going to remove the Idaan policy.”

He added that he is concerned about education and recalled that the President and Vice President of the Republic said that education was going to be the star of their government, “but the truth is that they have disappointed us and have robbed the pelaos of hope.”

In this sense, he specified that our educational system does not support more improvisations or politicking. “We are not going to allow Ifarhu to continue being a political machine of the government, which is giving away scholarships only to those of the PRD or to the friends of the deputies. We are going to stop that ”, he pointed out.

Regarding security, he specified that the government and the system have turned their backs on the country. “We are going to recover security in our neighborhoods and our homes.”

Roux, in reference to some sectors of the political class, said that: “the attacks of the gang of politicians who live off the system are not going to stop us.”

“Let’s not allow those who continue to control the country to steal our hope.”

He stated that on July 9 (the date of the CD primaries) not only the future of his party will be decided, but also the future of Panama and the 2024 elections.

“That July 9 we have two very clear and very different options. There is an option that is to continue down the disastrous path of a collapsed system with thugs and corrupt politicians who take advantage of impunity to continue plundering the country from power and who only care about what is in it for me,” he said.

The other path, he pointed out, “is our option, your option is to change the system and the way of governing in Panama, it is to build together a country where politicians work for the people, giving them solutions, pushing forward, convinced that a best country is possible. Join my proposal, and this great fight to save our country”.

He affirmed that he is immersed in this political project to unite a party, to unite the country, to fight against a collapsed and corrupt system, to fight in favor of the project that seeks progress, opportunities, solutions and hope.

“This nightmare that we are living is already ending and after this nightmare, good things come to Panama.”