Senator Esperanza Martínez outlined the construction of the opposition in Paraguay, highlighting that the main challenge is to consolidate territorial alliances capable of competing for local power. She explained that political work has been carried out through coordination among three major opposition spaces — including Frente Guasú and sectors of the Authentic Radical Liberal Party (PLRA) — as well as talks with other local groups.
“We try to build alliances among three spaces and with smaller spaces in some others, seeking to have the best number of lists to achieve a majority on municipal issues,” Martínez said. She noted that currently there are agreements in 138 municipalities in the country, driven by different political forces.
The legislator emphasized that municipal processes have their own logic, different from the dynamics of national elections. “Each municipality makes its own path,” she stated, explaining that in some localities agreements advance more easily due to prior histories of joint work and consolidated leadership, while in others fragmentation and political differences make collective construction more complex.
Martínez also pointed out difficulties generated by the current electoral system, particularly preferential voting, which she attributed to a dynamic of strong internal competition among leaders from the same space. “There is a fight of all against all that the system generates,” she argued. In her view, this logic not only encourages disputes within parties but deepens personal tensions and political rivalries that hinder the construction of broad consensus. “These are human issues: discussions, differences, rivalries, heroics. That is also part of political struggle,” she reflected.
Despite this scenario, the senator considered that the opposition maintains real possibilities of strengthening itself in several municipalities, as long as it can sustain strategic unity above conjunctural disputes.