Man named Hitler Mussolini Simeón Flores wins mayoral election in Peru
Simeón Flores won 229 votes in Queropalca, a district in northern Peru, in the Sunday 4 October municipal vote, running for the centre-left party Ahora Nación.
The vote
Hitler Mussolini Simeón Flores won the mayoral election in Queropalca, a district in Lauricocha province in the Huánuco department of northern Peru. BFMTV reports that the vote took place on Sunday 4 October. Flores received 229 votes, or 34.5% of valid votes, ahead of Gaspar Benilde Osorio Zambrano, who received 204 votes, or 30.77%. Wpolityce puts the third-place candidate at 28%, and POLITICO reports, citing local media, that the top three candidates were separated by just 42 votes. ABC notes that the municipal and regional vote followed the presidential victory of Keiko Sofía Fujimori, and that Queropalca covers 133 square kilometres and has more than 730 inhabitants.
- Hitler Mussolini Simeón Flores
- 229 votes
- Gaspar Benilde Osorio Zambrano
- 204 votes
A name that drew attention
The name matches those of Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi regime in Germany, and Benito Mussolini, the Italian dictator and founder of fascism. An article about the winner on the party's website says the name drew attention during the campaign. Ahora Nación is described by BFMTV as a centre-left party, by Telegraaf as social-democratic and centre-left, and by ABC as left-wing. ABC gives Flores's age as 45. POLITICO reports that his candidate application form gives few details, and none about his name, apart from the fact that he manages the Simeon Sac Investment Group. Flores insists that Hitler Mussolini is his real name and that his parents gave it to him at birth.
Earlier unusual names in Peru
Telegraaf notes that unusual names have won Peruvian elections before. In 2018, Hitler Alba Sánchez was elected mayor of Yúngar, defeating a rival named Lennin Vladimir Rodriguez Valverde, according to BFMTV. Telegraaf reports that Sánchez took the name from his father, who found it sounded good and foreign. Telegraaf also reports that Sánchez called himself the 'good Hitler', and that one of his opponents was named Lennin, a reference to the Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin.
Online reaction
The result spread quickly on social media, where automatic translation of posts on X helped it reach a wide audience, according to wpolityce. Krzysztof Stanowski, founder of Kanał Zero, commented on the result on X.
But his parents must have been on something that day.
Wpolityce notes, as an interesting detail, that Flores ran for a left-wing party. Telegraaf adds that the irony is considerable, since the party's politics are far from the ideologies of the two dictators whose names he carries.
