Precandidate for mayor of Asunción Soledad Núñez, running under the Alianza Unidos por Asunción, launched sharp criticism against Colorado Party aspirants Arnaldo Samaniego and Camilo Pérez, labeling them as the “continuismo” of current mayor Óscar Rodríguez’s administration. In an interview with ABC TV’s Mesa con EVP on Thursday, Núñez argued that both candidates represent the same political machinery that has driven the capital into administrative and financial crisis.
“Both need to feed the party machine inside Asunción. The municipality today is functional to that structure,” Núñez said, as reported by ABC Color.
A central plank of her platform is reducing the municipal workforce. Núñez stated that Asunción currently has 19.5 employees per 1,000 residents, a figure she called unsustainable. “You cannot keep sustaining an inefficient, bureaucratic model that turns its back on the people,” she said. She alleged that many hires are tied to political operatives and that some employees draw salaries without performing real duties. “Whoever takes money and doesn’t go to work is stealing from the taxpayer,” she added.
Núñez also addressed the ongoing intervention of the municipality, asserting that the irregularities uncovered so far are only a fraction of the problems. She described a “culture of obscurantism and secrecy” within city hall, noting that even the Municipal Council struggles to obtain information from the executive branch. “What the intervenor found is just the tip of the iceberg,” she warned, according to ABC Color.
The former minister insisted that the opposition offers the only real alternative for transforming the capital, drawing a clear contrast between “the same old faces” and a new way of governing. “We need real change in the municipality, and we won’t achieve it with those who are part of the same system,” she concluded.