José Raúl Mulino, 65 years old, assumed this Monday the Presidency of Panama for the period 2024-2029, at an event in the Panamanian capital before heads of state and government, and after winning the elections on May 5 with more than 34% of the votes.

Mulino was given the presidential sash by the new president of the National Assembly (AN), deputy Dana Castañeda, her co-religionist in the new Realzando Metas (RM) party, before an audience that included the King of Spain, Felipe VI, and presidents Gustavo Petro, of Colombia; Rodrigo Chaves, of Costa Rica; Xiomara Castro, of Honduras, and Luis Abinader, of the Dominican Republic, among others.

“I swear to God and the Fatherland to comply with and enforce the law and the Constitution”was the oath taken by Mulino, flanked by his wife and first lady, Maricel Cohen de Mulino, moments before receiving, visibly moved, the presidential sash.

The new president of Panama won the general elections on May 5 with the 34.23% of the votesafter a troubled campaign in which he began as a candidate for vice president on the ticket of former president Ricardo Martinelli (2009-2014), but was replaced ‘in extremis’ after the former president was disqualified after being sentenced to more than ten years in prison for corruption and seeking asylum in the Nicaraguan Embassy in Panama.

Despite the resounding presidential victory, the election for parliament was much more evenly divided. In this context, the ruling RM, founded by Martinelli after losing control of his original party, Democratic Change (CD), allied himself with the traditional parties to take over the leadership of Parliament on Monday.

The ruling party, which has 13 of the 71 seatswith the support of the traditional parties, obtained the presidency, the second vice-presidency and the general secretary of Parliament, while the first vice-presidency was left in the hands of the CD.

The independent For the first time in the country’s democratic history, they are the leading parliamentary minority with 20 seats – well above the 5 they had in the last legislature – following the debacle of the traditional parties in the general elections.

The historical The Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) obtained 13 seats for the new legislature, compared to 35 in the previous one; the CD obtained 8 when it previously had 18, and the Panamanian Party (PPa) remained with 8.

Mulino, who has already recognized the independent emerging force and in the face of the fragmentation in the Assembly, he held meetings with all the parties in recent weeks, a sign that he plans to reach a consensus on the measures that he must take to get the country out of the crisis and that could generate social rejection.

The economic recovery, the collapse of a pension subsystem, The water crisis in the Panama Canal and the irregular migration that crosses the country on its way to the United States, as well as the mining controversy, are challenges that await Mulino.