Ranil Wickremesinghe is trying to form an all-party government that can claim a broad mandate. But the new president has made little headway so far
Just three weeks later the city feels like a different place. The long queues for fuel have vanished. The noise of traffic has returned. So have the crab and cassava-chip hawkers on the seaside promenade, and the ambling families munching on their snacks. The protesters are gone, some evicted by force, the rest eventually leaving voluntarily. The security presence has dwindled, too. Power cuts, although still commonplace, are markedly shorter. A sense of normality has returned.
The new president promises an avalanche of reforms. He plans to raise income taxes to at least the levels of 2019, when Mr Rajapaksa, as well as to widen the tax base beyond what it was before the crisis. State-owned enterprises, including the national airline, the petroleum corporation and the government’s stake in the national telecoms firm will be sold off. Mr Wickremesinghe also wants to bring in a bankruptcy law modelled on America’s Chapter 11.
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