From the Andes to Athens

This week, we look at media comment on the results of the presidential election in Peru as well as on the complicated financial rescue package for Greece.

Peru’s Left Turn

The election of nationalist candidate Ollanta Humala in Peru could put the country’s economy at risk, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Peru has been a rare Latin American success story, a growing economy in an Andes region deteriorating under left-wing populism. … Those in the mold of Hugo Chávez — in Ecuador, Nicaragua and Bolivia — have politicized their economies and undermined democratic institutions to enhance their power. … Brazil’s Lula da Silva and Peru’s current president Alan Garcia also had hard-left resumes, but they came to understand that free markets and property rights are crucial for growth that reduces poverty. Mr. Humala will now make his choice.

Europe on the brink

Political leaders are desperate to stabilize the euro, writes the Financial Times. This could lead to the eurozone countries taking over Greece’s entire debt.

The front lines in the next battles over Greece’s financial rescue are now delineated. In Berlin, finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble has made official a long-mooted policy of offering a new rescue loan if private holders of Greek sovereign debt extend the maturities of their claims. In Athens, a fresh programme of structural reform, fiscal tightening and privatisation is drawn up. In both capitals, the task is now to bring lawmakers on board — then the rest of Europe. …