The main person responsible for the reduction of seats in Congress is me: Álvaro Uribe

On Tuesday, March 15, the former president of Colombia, Álvaro Uribe Vélez, took responsibility for the results of the Democratic Center in the legislative elections in which the ruling party went from being the majority force in the Congress of the Republic with 41 seats, to losing 5 seats in the Senate and 16 in the House of Representatives.

This was stated by the former president during a meeting to which the members of the collective had been convened last Sunday, March 13, after the results of the elections were known, in which, apart from the Congress of the Republic, the sole candidates of the political coalitions that will face in the first presidential round.

“We decreased a lot of seats. The main one responsible for this decline is me, because of the impact on my reputation. We must try to build and not become stoppers that prevent this construction. The moment forces us to have a very cool head, because beyond the party, which we have lost many seats, there is a huge risk to the homeland,” the former president said during the first meeting with the bench after the results of the elections were known.

He also indicated during his speech, in which he began by pointing out that it was not a “holiday, because we are not in the boom”, that it was necessary for the elected candidates to begin to make a political transition, consulting the party militants “about the next step to be taken” in which they re-examine “the issues most important programmatic”.

In this regard, he indicated that the committee should be composed of the largest voters such as Miguel Uribe, María Fernanda Cabal, Paloma Valencia, who will be responsible for the “transition”, while referring to the possibility of a coalition to face the opposition leader at the polls and the leader of the voting intention polls, Gustavo Petro.

“Any candidate I approach right there they say uribista and put a stigma on it. I was even sorry that Oscar Ivan went out with me on walks. That is why I want to do a task now by applying the principle of 'a lot does he who does not hindrance'. But the party cannot be an obstacle or a factor of plugging. The party must help with its attitudes, with its thinking and its decisions so that this can lead to a grand coalition with which Colombia can effectively confront Petro,” said the former president.

These statements by the former president come a day after the ruling party candidate, Oscar Iván Zuluaga, resigned his aspirations to the presidency of Colombia and announced his support for the right-wing alliance candidate of the Team for Colombia, Federico Gutiérrez, who won the second highest vote in the consultations after by Gustavo Petro.

On the other hand, the former president referred to the reforms of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), an issue that had previously been addressed by some members of the community such as Senators Paloma Valencia and María Fernanda Cabal, assuring that the party should reinstate a special chamber “to impartially judge the military”.

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