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If there is one thing that former Antioquia Governor Sergio Fajardo is clear about, it is that he wants to be a presidential candidate from the center and resolutely move away from the “extremes”, which, he says, polarize politics.
In dialogue with EL TIEMPO, Fajardo ruled out alliances or rapprochements with the left-wing senator Gustavo Petro and the Democratic Center and spoke of his proposals for the country.
What is ex-governor Sergio Fajardo up to?
In two things: one, my formal job, from which I earn my living, which is as a professor at the Tecnológico de Monterrey, in Mexico. And the other is political activity, the physical organization of our Citizen Commitment movement throughout Colombia. We are organizing groups of people who are working, have tasks, there are responsibilities, we follow up and we are collecting what happens in the regions and the construction of our proposal.
And what are you up to in political matters?
We are working on different issues that have to do with the country today, understanding the nature of this pandemic, what is happening, the difficulties that so many people are going through, structuring our thinking around different issues to make proposals that have to do with reality. that so many people are living.
(Read also: ‘The old socialism was more frank, the new ones are underhanded’: Uribe)
Are you looking at the possibility of your movement having a list for Congress in 2022?
Not at this time, but eventually we will have to be thinking about how Congress is going to be shaped.
There are those who say that Iván Marulanda, who will be in a consultation with the ‘greens’, would eventually return to his movement, how true is this?
No, that’s not true. The fact that he is running within Alianza Verde is not a decision we make jointly. For the last ten years we have worked together. Now, he made a decision and announced that he wanted to participate in that consultation with Alianza Verde and that is his personal decision. It is not a prior arrangement.
Iván Marulanda, senator of the Republic and who announced that he will participate in the Alianza Verde consultation.
How are you analyzing the 2022 presidential campaign?
I have no doubt that in 2022 there will be a change in the leadership of the Colombian State. The chapter of the Democratic Center, which has governed practically all this century, has been in power and all the people who have been in the presidency have been associated with the Democratic Center, headed by former president Álvaro Uribe, who has been the person who it has led them, it is now closed.
(Recommended: Gustavo Bolívar predicts what the country would be like with Petro as president)
Are you participating in coalitions or consultations in 2022 on your accounts?
It is important and we have done it. Last time, in 2018, we built a coalition that I think was the strongest ever built. Coalitions are important, you have to know how to do them and I think that for what comes next we will do it. We have to converge outside the extremes, but there is still a long way to go.
The last time I exchanged a word with him (Petro) was on May 24, 2018, two days before the first round of 2018. I have not spoken anything else and we do not have any kind of relationship
Would you be willing to have some kind of rapprochement with Gustavo Petro?
The last time I spoke a word with him was on May 24, 2018, two days before the first round of 2018. I have not spoken anything else and we do not have any kind of relationship. In the world of ideas there are many things that can be shared, but in political terms there is no kind of political relationship.
Gustavo Petro, left-wing senator and head of Human Colombia.
Cesar Melgarejo. TIME
And could it be given?
With Mr. Gustavo Petro I am not willing to make any kind of political alliance.
And because?
For a very deep and simple reason at the same time and that is that to build, in this country, it cannot be done from anger, from aggression. The different cannot be run over. I think that the urgency of Colombia is to turn a few pages and go through the political leadership and learn to do something that I have been saying: we can be different without being enemies.
(Read also: The political landscape for the Uribe and Roy Barreras referendums)
Would you agree to participate in a consultation with Gustavo Petro?
No. I’m going to quote Jorge Robledo when we built the Colombia Coalition in 2018. He said ‘if we agree to participate in a consultation it is because we consider ourselves replaceable for each other and being willing to participate means that we share’ ideas. If I am saying that I would not make an alliance with him, it would be an inconsistency to say that I would participate in a consultation.
Could there be more possibilities of rapprochement with Uribe?
No. We are not part of the Democratic Center project or Uribism. In politics we have always competed. That, also, would be a way of saying that because I am not with someone, I must be with the other and that is precisely a wrong form of politics, it is the politics of polarization and extremes.
(You may be interested in reading: Uribe responds to Fajardo’s interview and goes on the attack)
We are not part of the project of the Democratic Center or of Uribe. In politics we have always competed
It is said that people are tired of extremes. Is Sergio Fajardo the center candidate that some sectors might be looking for?
I am outside the extremes and we have done so in politics for 21 years. In that political discussion, as a representative of Compromiso por Colombia and articulated with many people, we presented the country with a proposal and we hope that this is the one that will lead to Colombia. I want to be the person who leads that proposal.
There are those who say that you are lukewarm, what to answer to this?
What I am saying is the way we understand politics: be respectful of people, recognize people, have solidarity and empathy. If that is considered lukewarm, it doesn’t hurt me at all. This is a way of doing politics and we have always done so. We have had many successes and we have faced setbacks and we have lost and we have always been respectful. If that is being lukewarm, I am lukewarm and it doesn’t bother me or cloud me.
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JORGE ENRIQUE MELÉNDEZ AND JUAN FRANCISCO VALBUENA G.
POLITICAL WRITING
