By: Yves Pierre-Louis & Kim Ives - Haiti Liberté

On April 27, President Rene Preval finally nominated neoliberal economist Ericq Pierre as his Prime Minister, after two weeks of intense negotiations at the National Palace. Preval consulted with Haiti's political parties, the heads of the Senate and the House of Deputies, "civil" society and business leaders, as well as, inappropriately, representatives of the international community.

If approved by both Parliamentary houses, Pierre would become Haiti's next prime minister, replacing Jacques Edouard Alexis, whom the Senate ousted on April 12 (see Haiti Liberte, Vol. 1, No. 39, 4/16/2008).

Pierre, 63, is from Jeremie in Haiti's southwestern Grand Anse department. Trained as an agronomist, he has worked in recent years as a senior advisor to the Executive Director of Haiti and Argentina at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). He has also acted as the IDB's liaison with Haiti - appointed by the bank with Haitian government approval - since 1991.

Ericq Pierre was Preval's first nomination for a replacement Prime Minister 11 years ago, during his first administration, after Prime Minister Rosny Smarth resigned. The Parliament rejected the nomination on "technical" grounds that Pierre had not met constitutional conditions for citizenship, residency and tax-paying that the post requires.

However, there were other factors at play. At that time, the Parliament was dominated by the Struggling People's Organization (OPL), Smarth's party, which was wrestling with Preval for control of the government and the emergence of the newly founded Lavalas Family party. The OPL was trying to establish - unsuccessfully - its dominance.

Furthermore, Pierre had proudly trumpeted his neoliberal credentials and intentions. While the OPL parliamentarians had no problem with this orientation, others did, causing them to also vote against his nomination in August 1997.

This time around, Preval seems to have laid the groundwork more carefully. Senate President Kelly Bastien dismissed the notion that Pierre's nomination would suffer the same fate as it did in 1997. "There is no longer any conflict between the majority party and the executive," he said.

Several lawmakers have already declared that they will support the nomination, including Senator Rudi Heriveaux from the Lavalas Family party (FL). "The Lavalas party of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, in exile in South Africa, is ready to vote for the nomination of Mr. Pierre," Heriveaux told AFP. "I believe that he [Pierre] perfectly matches the profile that all the sectors have recommended. I hope though that he will listen to their demands."

Of all the parties in the Parliament, the FL would be the most likely to oppose Pierre's neoliberal pedigree. To complicate matters, Lavalas executive committee leader Annette "So An" Auguste last week denounced Heriveaux (without naming him directly) as a "threat" who was creating "disorder and spreading confusion" by claiming to be the party's supreme leader in Aristide's absence.

Meanwhile, 53 parliamentarians have formed a new bloc called the Coalition of Progressive Parliamentarians (CPP), claiming that they have an anti-neoliberal stance. Will the CPP oppose Pierre's nomination, although it includes many lawmakers from Preval's Hope alliance? Time will tell.

Preval was also pressured to choose Ericq Pierre by several visiting foreign officials such as Alain Joyandel, French Secretary of State for Cooperation and Francophonie, Jose Miguel Insulza, Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), and Miguel Angel Moratinos, Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation.

Bastien and president of the House of Deputies, Eric Pierre Jean Jacques, said that both parliamentary houses are forming special commissions to start reviewing the nomination.

Pierre purports to have no ambition to be head of government. "It's a sense of duty for me to serve my country," he said. "I did my studies in Haiti and the country invested in me and I should in return to put my knowledge at my country's service."

Pierre also eloquently expressed his technocratic vision when he said: "There is no reform of the left or the right, there are only necessary reforms." The greatest outcry against Ericq Pierre's nomination may come from the Haitian people themselves. The uprising that began of April 3 and swept away Alexis was not just against food's high cost but against neoliberal austerity policies in general. In this light, Pierre's nomination is likely to provoke more anger and demonstrations in the weeks ahead.