Censure of José Jerí

On 17 February 2026, the Peruvian Congress approved the censure of José Jerí from the position of president of Peru under a vote of no confidence. Unlike impeachment, which requires a supermajority of 87 in the 130-member legislature, Congress voted to censure Jerí, stripping him of his title as President of Congress with a simple majority of 66 votes. His interim status was then used to remove him from the presidency. Jerí became the sixth president removed by Congress, and the fourth of the 2020s, after Guillermo Billinghurst (1914), Alberto Fujimori (2000), Martín Vizcarra (2020), Pedro Castillo (2022), and Dina Boluarte (2025).

Several opposition parties put forward seven motions against Jerí during the extraordinary plenary session. Jerí has been accused of misconduct after holding private, unofficial meetings with Zhihua Yang, a Chinese businessman who holds a state-granted concession for one of his companies. The only parties who voted against the impeachment proceedings were We Are Peru, led by Jerí, and Popular Force, led by Keiko Fujimori. Jerí's impeachment was structured as a vote of no confidence rather than the traditional "permanent moral incapacity" under Article 113 of the Constitution of Peru.

Fernando Rospigliosi, acting president of Congress, declared after the vote that the office of President of the Congress of the Republic is vacant, and consequently, the office of President of the Republic is vacant. Jerí accepted the outcome. Following Jerí's removal, Rospigliosi, who would have been next in line for the presidency, declined to assume the office. Subsequently, Congressman José María Balcázar was elected president by the Congress on 18 February.