RISING concerns over corruption and impunity, the delay in appointing new Supreme Court Judges and political infighting in the National Assembly are, raising concerns about a potential administrative crisis.

Lawmakers are locked in a battle over the future of the Assembly Credentials Commission which examines Government appointments, and complaints related to judges, and  the president and ethical issues.

In increasingly fractious debates during a week when Panama has been listed as slipping downwards on an international corruption ladder, President Juan Carlos Varela,  never accused of moving swiftly. has become a target inside and outside the legislature.

On Friday, February 23, First Lady Lorena Castillo de Varela stepped into the conflict in defense of her husband

She denounced alleged threats that he has received from deputies.

"These threats have been stronger since the president appointed the magistrates who were rejected by the deputies of the Assembly," she said in a telephone interview on TVN News. “Unfortunately, it is a situation that goes beyond a struggle to control the  Credentials Commission.”

She said that there have been threats to dismiss and judge the president in the Plenary of the Assembly and that "they are plotting below. while there have been "calls and meetings" with intentions to harm the president.

She  reminded the deputies of the Assembly that it was the people who elected Varela and not Democratic Change(CD) and the Democratic Revolutionary Party(PRD)

She asked the deputies not to fall into the political game of seeking a  majority but to make laws, which is their duty.