FRETILIN is currently in government as part of a three-party coalition that deposed the CNRT-led coalition in 2020. He ultimately returned, serving as the country’s first prime minister from 2002–06 and again from 2017–18. His influence stems from his role as FRETILIN’s first Minister of Political Affairs in 1975: by happenstance, Alkatiri was on travel to Mozambique when Indonesia invaded Timor-Leste in 1975, and subsequently spent the occupation in exile. His party is currently in opposition, having been relegated out of power in 2020.Īlkatiri, who leads the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (FRETILIN), is more polarising than Gusmão, but nonetheless maintains high favourability ratings, as most Timorese political figures do. He served as the nation’s first president from 2002–07 and as prime minister from 2007–15. His popularity and influence transcend that of other resistance-era figures, partially due to his role in uniting a then-fractured resistance movement in the mid-1980s and time spent under house arrest in Jakarta in the 1990s. Gusmão, who leads the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT) is the country’s single most popular political leader. Relations between Gusmão and Alkatiri have long been contentious – some of their mutual animosity stems from the fact that the former was in the country during the occupation, while the latter was in exile outside of the country.
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