Government withdraws the political reform project, the first setback for Petro

Government Colombian The proposal for political reform was withdrawn from Congress this Thursday, considering that with the modifications to the articles, the initiative does not fulfill the task of strengthening democracy, parties and expanding the participation of women in politics.

“Following the instructions of the president Gustavo Petrothe requests of the Historical Pactfrom other political sectors and the in-depth debate (…) the Government made the decision to request authorization to withdraw the reform”, said the Minister of the Interior, alfonso pradato journalists.

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Prada requested the withdrawal of the reform, which was approved in Commission I of the Senate where it was in the fifth of eight debates, which was the first political setback for the Petro government in Congress.

“The proposal that requests the withdrawal of the Legislative Act Project No. 018 of 2022 Senate, through which a Political Reform is adopted, has been approved with 16 votes”, the Senate reported on its Twitter account.

The political reform was considered by the Government as one of the fundamental initiatives and that is why Prada today called for an agreement to be processed for a new political reform, but he said that this would already be in 2024, since next semester there are elections .

Regarding the reform, President Petro said on his Twitter account: “I believe that in political reform there is no progressive issue left. Without closed lists and zippers, that is, that allow equal seats for men and women and without state financing of the campaigns, the reform does not contribute to an advance in the quality of politics”.

This message was interpreted as a “coup de grace” to the initiative promoted by the Government and especially by the president of the Senate, Roy Barreras.

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Labor, pension and health reforms are also discussed in Congress, initiatives that have aroused criticism from the opposition and even from some sectors of the government itself.

The reform, without political life

Hours before and while breaking the presentation of the reform, Barreras said that he was asking Prada and the Government to withdraw that initiative “that no longer makes any sense”.

Barreras had said several times that if the project was denatured, he would prefer not to continue with the initiative and that he would “sink”.

At the beginning of the day, the official bench of the Historical Pact requested that the initiative be withdrawn.

“We do not want a political reform, we are betting on what President Gustavo Petro is betting on in the sense that a political reform is to deepen democracy”, said the representative to the Chamber, Alirio Uribeof the Historical Pact.

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In that direction, he explained that the ruling bench defended that the lists be closed and equal.

He recalled that the reform proposed that political campaigns be financed one hundred percent by the State to avoid, according to Uribe, that “this country is a plutocracy or worse, that the State is captured by the mafias, by the multinationals, by the businessmen and so that those who are popularly elected respond to national interests”.

The congressman concluded that the project was “filled with ‘mickeys’” and that is why it was better than the “it sinks”, as actually happened.

Source: Elcomercio

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I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.