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Sergio Fajardo
He lined up batteries for the 2022 presidential campaign. Along that way, he spoke about the current crisis in the country, launched proposals to solve unemployment and explained what his political project consists of.
In addition, economically, he detailed what his ambitious plan would be to create 1 million 400 thousand jobs.
Also, in an interview with the director of Snail News,
Juan Roberto Vargas threw darts at President Iván Duque and distanced himself from Gustavo Petro.
JRV: What is your emergency plan to create 1 million 400 thousand jobs, one of the most sensitive issues and one that needs quick proposals?
SF: We have a proposal divided into two dimensions, one in the public sector and the other in the private sector.
The first is 1 million 400 thousand jobs in the public sector. We go to the municipalities, Colombia has 1,102, we want that in each place, together with the mayor’s office and the organizations, they identify the projects that have to do with immediate needs; articulated with the governorates, that help formulate projects in a process technically called participatory budgeting.
The viability, the feasibility, the resources that are used, the urgency of the projects for the development of these municipalities must be presented.
We think of a first stage where 15 billion pesos are assigned to generate 700 thousand jobs, it is a 1-year project.
Those jobs have to do with the needs of each municipality.
The second has to do with support for micro, small and medium enterprises; In the first instance to micro-enterprises, about 70% of the employment that has been lost is associated with those enterprises with fewer than 10 employees.
We call, from the government’s perspective, an auction, each company presents how much it is willing to contribute to pay its employees, in such a way that the government accompanies those payments to strengthen the capacity of those companies and that productive development is not lost.
JRV: How would it be financed?
SF: The Banco de la República, through the purchase of TES (Treasury Titles) from the national government, in such a way that the government receives immediate resources that can finance this employment.
We also have the capacity to make use of international loans and get into debt, there are people who are mortified by that, but we cannot mortify ourselves, we are in an emergency situation in our country. We have seen the meaning of social discontent, of the collective indignation that exists in a large part of the territory and unemployment is a social tragedy of dimensions that we cannot understand.
JRV: This plan has this proposal both at the regional level and at the microenterprise level, the money has to be taken from somewhere, but it also ensures that it is not the time to carry out major reforms such as the tax one. When is the time?
SF: We must immediately begin to design the tax, pension and labor reform, it has to go together, this is a serious political discussion, in part, to know how we are going to pay the debt that is going to be acquired to attend the pandemic, because we have to attend to the emergency and it has to be done by extraordinary means.
The tax reform is going to be a discussion that I hope the government will present from next year, we will have to discuss because it is a political look at how we understand development, understand the nature of inequalities in our country, the poverty figures , which are scandalous, figures that were before the pandemic began. The sooner we get into that discussion, the better.
JRV: You have assured that these conditions are the breeding ground for populism, demagoguery, extremes to land. Is there a remedy?
SF: It does have a remedy, and it is important to understand it, populism is that expression of politics that offers easy solutions to complex problems, which can fit in a tweet. We have to identify the roots of discontent in Colombia. Inequalities, poverty, and a word that is often ignored, but that appears in all surveys: corruption.
JRV: You have coined another term that calls for an eventual alternative convergence, you say that it is the key to building a serious political project. What are the keys to entering that convergence?
SF: The first thing Colombia needs is an ethical agreement, what are the principles and values on which we want to build this Colombian society, we are trapped around the peace agreement, in polarization, but we have to give the opportunity to live without violence, understand those peace agreements, respecting them and at the same time expanding the idea of how we relate to each other as human beings; a citizen culture project to leave violence behind and turn that page of destruction.
JRV: Gustavo Petro says he fits into an alternative movement, proclaims himself as a representative of a different force, Does he fit into that mold that you pose?
SF: Without a doubt, we have an alternative aspect, it represented citizen commitment, like many other movements in our country that have made alternative politics, that we came to power in a different way, and we achieved some transformations.
Petro is part of one of the extremes and We have a fundamental difference, it has to do with how the different is treated.
If we want to build peace, it will not be by eliminating the different, the different, by aggression, by insult, the mistreatment of those who do not think like us, from that perspective, the only thing that arises is anger, resentment, the desire for revenge.
I have said it over and over again, I try not to talk about him, it is the way I think and that has meant that they tell me lukewarm and a number of things, we represent what Colombia needs.
JRV: How to compete to those extremes?
SF: What we have to do is understand the problems of inequalities, what corruption means, the way we want to build a different space to interact, the commitment to education, knowledge, all those elements for development and to show that Colombia we want is not built from destruction and rage.
JRV: There are those who criticize you and say that you did not decide in the last presidential campaign and that you end up being like the others, being at one extreme, saying that you are the good one.
SF: Of course I decided on a blank vote, that is a conscious, elaborate decision, which I do not regret.
Now, we are planning a field (…), we can be different without being enemies.
JRV: This government has two years left, in that fight of extremes, where do you place President Duque?
SF: President Duque was never able to build a single consensus in our country, never; I give an example: on August 7, 2018, in the midst of that storm, when he was going to take office, when he spoke of uniting Colombia, the president of Congress, Senator (Ernesto) Macías, from the president’s party, showed how he had to divide the country and (Duque) has never been able to unite the country.
Former President Uribe himself pointed out: beware of 2022, which is a way of saying, from now on we are campaigning, and the national government, which never had a north, will not have it now. And he did not have the capacity to unite us and it will not happen at this time or with the difficulties that come.
The president is the president of the Democratic Center, they have had extraordinary power in this century, but times are ending and Colombia needs to turn that page, they have already had their chance, they have governed, this government is their last government.
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