These were the conclusions of Sergio Fajardo's meeting with the Esperanza Center Coalition

After a meeting that lasted more than five hours, the presidential candidate, Sergio Fajardo, spoke out on the challenges that the Centro Esperanza Coalition will face, following the results of the interparty consultations on March 13. Of all the alliances on the card, the political 'center' was the one with the lowest participation with about 2,158,575 votes.

The meeting, which took place until Monday night, was attended by the other former pre-candidates of the coalition: Juan Manuel Galán, Carlos Amaya, Alejandro Gaviria and Jorge Enrique Robledo. He was also seen by Humberto de la Calle, senator elected by the Green Alliance list and Esperanza Center, and Juan Fernando Cristo, coordinator of the campaign.

In view of the allegations of possible divisions within the coalition, the meeting sought to define a strategy to trace the results of the electoral race. This was evidenced by Fajardo, who spoke out after a dialogue with the other members of the political alliance and called for “working together”.

“We are the only ones able to unite our country. We will go far beyond the leadership of shared debate. Each one will have a role and responsibility that we are going to make public, because we have to deploy ourselves from multiple fronts, such as the territorial front, thematic programs and contacts with other groups,” said the presidential candidate in the first instance.

“It is our challenge to convene the nearly 8 million people who did not participate in this election. To summon them, invite them and seduce them, to participate around the change we propose,” he added, making it clear that the coalition of the Esperanza Center “will move on to the second round and defeat Gustavo Petro.”

Likewise, through his Twitter account, Fajardo said that the only way to achieve “profound change” in the country is “without further divisions.” “This is just beginning, we have already shown that we know how to correct and overcome. We're going to win the presidency. Trust us,” he concluded.

Let us remember that, in the last few hours, Fajardo ruled out an alliance with Federico Gutiérrez, after he invited him to “give up pride and arrogance”. For the former governor of Antioquia, 'Fico' represents the candidate of Uribism: “We are going to the same film and that is not a good film for Colombia,” he said.

On Monday night, a debate was held, in alliance between Semana and El Tiempo, where Gustavo Petro, 'Fico' Gutiérrez and Íngrid Betancourt were present. The latter took the opportunity to send some pullas to Sergio Fajardo, who was not present at the meeting.

Betancourt, presidential candidate for the Green Oxygen party, argued that she represents the political 'center', away from political machinery, and not the former mayor of Medellín. “Sergio Fajardo is absent, he should have been here, they invited him, he should have been here, but he is sending a very clear message to the country, he is not the leader for this contest,” he said.

Later, the former senator stated that she “wants this country to come out and live differently, not with the hatred that extremes distill. We are going to unite it in another way, not by ideology, I have no problem with either the left or the right. There are extraordinary people on both sides.”

“It doesn't matter who arrives, how they arrive, the important thing is to win. It doesn't matter what the funding or the supports are. Here there are right-wing populisms and left-wing populisms,” Betancourt concluded, criticizing 'Fico' and Petro.

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