By Marco Aquino
LIMA, May 18 (Reuters) – Peru’s left-wing presidential candidate Roberto Sanchez, whose platform has unsettled financial markets ahead of a June runoff vote against conservative frontrunner Keiko Fujimori, on Monday appointed a former economy minister from ex-President Pedro Castillo’s administration to lead the team drafting his economic plan.
Pedro Francke, considered a moderate economist, is part of a technical team that will focus on a planned review of resource exploitation contracts, a 33% increase in the minimum wage, and a redrafting of the constitution, according to Sanchez’s plan.
Sanchez on Friday narrowly secured his place in the June 7 runoff following a month-long count of the election’s first round results, which were delayed over logistical issues and allegations of fraud.
The leftist candidate’s rise in the polls has unnerved investors whose plans include reviews of mining contracts in one of the world’s leading copper producers.
Francke served as economy minister for six months in 2021 and 2022 under leftist president Castillo, and was key in calming financial markets during Castillo’s electoral campaign – also against Fujimori.
Castillo was jailed on rebellion and conspiracy charges after a short-lived presidency that ended in a failed attempt to dissolve Congress in 2022. He has publicly endorsed Sanchez from jail.
Speaking at a forum on informal mining organized by the Swiss embassy in Lima, Sanchez said that in the coming days he would announce all members of his technical team along with a “manifesto and plan” for the first 100 days of government.
“We need a strong, social, market-based economy, not one of oligopolies and monopolies,” Sanchez said. “We are a truly popular government that wants to democratize rights, the economy, resources, and justice.”
Sanchez declined to clarify whether Francke could also be appointed as potential economy minister were he to take office.
The leftist candidate said that his economic team also included economist Oscar Dancourt, who served as director of Peru’s central bank from 2001 to 2005.
(Reporting by Marco Aquino; Writing by Iñigo Alexander. Editing by Lucinda Elliott and Alistair Bell)
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