Man Named Hitler Mussolini Wins Mayoral Election In Peru

Man Named Hitler Mussolini Wins Mayoral Election In Peru

Hitler Mussolini Simeon Flores was the candidate for left-wing Ahora Nación

A Peruvian politician named Hitler Mussolini Simeon Flores has won a local election to become mayor of Queropalca, a remote district in the Andes, according to exit polls.

The 45-year-old candidate of the centre-left Ahora Nación party secured 229 votes, defeating his closest rival from the right-wing Renovación Popular Perú by 25 votes.

Data from Peru’s electoral office showed that slightly more than 700 people participated in the election, with Flores securing about 34 per cent of the votes.

Despite the small electorate, the result has attracted international attention because the candidate’s first names are shared with Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, two of the most notorious dictators in 20th-century European history.

Local media outlet Peru21 described his candidacy as a “striking event”, referring to the two names as belonging to “two of the most well-known figures of 20th-Century European totalitarian regimes”.

Flores was born in Queropalca, in the central Peruvian department of Huánuco, about 360 kilometres from the capital, Lima, according to his candidate profile.

He is not the first politician with a controversial historical name to win public office.

In 2018, Hitler Guesclin Alba Sánchez was elected mayor of Yúngar, another Peruvian district. He reportedly defeated rival Lenin Vladimir Rodríguez Valverde after campaigning with the slogan, “I’m the good Hitler”.

A similar case emerged in Namibia in 2020, when politician Adolf Hitler Uunona attracted international attention after winning a local election.

Namibia was formerly a German colony, where Germanic first names, including Adolf, are not uncommon.

Flores’ victory has once again drawn attention to the unusual names held by some elected officials, even as the election itself involved a relatively small community in Peru’s Andean region.

AFP