Migration, trade and regaining trust in Panama, are the challenges for Mulino as president.  The opposition to the elected Mulino has announced that it will closely monitor his management. José Raúl Mulino, winner of the presidential elections in Panama, faces great challenges, such as the economic crisis or the fight against corruption, as well as regaining confidence in the country and clearing up doubts about whether he intends to undertake a constitutional change. These are challenges for which the opposition has already announced that it will closely monitor the management of the Mulino who was originally picked to be the vice president of former president Ricardo Martinelli.  Martinelli was disqualified, leaving Mulino running for President which he won hands down.  But of course a lot of help happened as a result of Ricardo Martinelli's direction from the confines of the Nicaraguan Embassy in Panama City, which has been wonderfully redecorated inside over the past few months.  

Martinelli has been running his own campaign in the Nicaraguan Embassy in Panama since last February 7, after his sentence of more than 10 years in prison for alleged money laundering became final.  Mulino, analysts say, should try to guide his management towards respect for the constitutional order and the separation of powers, and manage a Government of national unity, as he announced in his victory speech.  “Here you will have a president of great respectful conciliation (...) I respect the autonomy of each State, but it is up to the Executive, and it will be, to direct the destinies of the Panamanian nation,” stated Mulino.  His Government, which will take office on July 1, will find the country in an economic crisis expressed in the fall in the growth rate of the gross domestic product (GDP), which is expected to be around 2.5% this year compared to 7, 3% from 2023, which is attributed to the consequences of the pandemic and its management.  The economy and employment have not fully recovered after the 17.9% drop in GDP in 2020, to which is added the water crisis in the interoceanic canal that will reduce the income and its contributions to the State, and the closure at the end of 2023 of the large Cobre Panamá mine, a subsidiary of the Canadian First Quantum Minerals (FQM). It is going to be a tough road ahead, so we will get to see what kind of stuff that Mulino is made of.