Petro continues to seek the center with the accession of a Colombian candidate

The left-wing candidate for the Presidency of ColombiaGustavo Petro, continues to receive support from the center for his campaign, which was joined this Thursday by former Minister of Health and academic Alejandro Gaviria, who was one of the candidates of the Hope Center Coalition.

“I think that with caveats and concerns on some issues, Gustavo Petro currently represents the most responsible, institutional and liberal option for change.”, assured Gaviria, who was also rector of the Universidad de Los Andes, in a video.

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The scholar considered thatthe risks of an institutional breakdown, especially with Congress but also with the Courts, are greater with Rodolfo Hernandez“, while Petro “He has made an effort to articulate a vision of change.”

“From a democratic point of view, it seems questionable to me that he has simply, only, appealed to an effective but opportunistic anti-corruption discourse,” he argued, alluding to the main slogan of the Hernández campaign, the rival of Petro in the second presidential round on June 19, who is a foul-mouthed multimillionaire construction businessman who does not define himself on the right or on the left and maintains a populist discourse.

Gaviria represents an important academic and intellectual sector of the cities, but he barely received 336,504 votes in the inter-party consultation of the Centro Esperanza coalition on March 13, which was won by former Medellín mayor Sergio Fajardo with more than 700,000 votes.

The center, which came together led by Fajardo, who came fourth in the first round last Sunday, this week gave freedom of support to its members in the face of the final electoral meeting and since then many lower and middle ranks have joined Petro in his electoral aspiration.

Among those who have joined the campaign are several congressmen elected on March 13, such as Ariel Ávila or the head of the New Liberalism list, Mábel Lara, who was not elected, and also Fajardo’s vice-presidential formula, former Environment Minister Luis Gilbert Murillo.

However, Fajardo is expected to take the opposite direction and join Hernández, since they had a meeting in Bogotá today, after which the center leader assured that they talked and discussed the government programs to “find the coincidences and look where we have to make adjustments” so that it materializes in a joint government plan headed by Hernández.

“There is no agreement,” said the former mayor of Medellín, who specified that one of the points of disagreement is the women’s program.

For the first time in the electoral campaign, the polls do not place the favorite Petro to reach Casa Nariño, although they show an almost technical tie between both candidates, who compete to be the option for change that the country asks for.

Source: Elcomercio

Ronald Payne

I, Ronald Payne, am a journalist and author who dedicated his life to telling the stories that need to be said. I have over 7 years of experience as a reporter and editor, covering everything from politics to business to crime.