Gustavo Petro's conditions to attend the presidential debates

After not attending the presidential debate of the regions, organized by the country's leading regional media, the rumor began that the candidate of the Historical Pact, Gustavo Petro, will not attend any more such spaces. On March 20, the politician's task force assured that this information is false. What is true is that they will be more selective with the invitations they accept.

The press team of the Historical Pact has told several media outlets that Petro will only attend those debates that indicate his rules of the game in advance. This means that the politician must be specified the topics to be dealt with, the times of intervention and replication, and who will be the moderators of the spaces.

In this way, the Petro team seeks to have greater control over the spaces in which the candidate will be involved. This way the politician can continue to defend his proposals, since not going to all presidential debates is not a convenient option, even more so when the first presidential round is two months away.

In addition, citizens have demanded Petro's presence in these spaces. During the debate in the regions, dozens of internet users dared to say that “debate without Gustavo Petro, it was not debate”. In addition, despite the fact that the Historic Pact candidate did not participate, he was the target of attacks.

Although it has not been confirmed, it is presumed that just one of the arguments behind the Pact team's decision to better select the debates that Petro is attending has to do with that constant attack.

The main criticism of recent presidential debates is that personal attacks have been privileged rather than the dissemination of proposals. Citizens say they prefer to listen to government plans before continuing to see politicians insult each other, especially when, in general, the same four applicants always attend all spaces.

It is worth mentioning that the candidates who are always invited to the debates, in addition to Petro, are Ingrid Betancourt, for the Green Oxygen party; Sergio Fajardo, from the Centro Esperanza Coalition; and Federico 'Fico' Gutiérrez, from Team for Colombia.

Even those invitations have also generated controversy, since five other politicians who have not been seen participating in debates participate in the race for Casa de Nariño are currently participating in the race for the Casa de Nariño. In fact, Enrique Gómez, representative of the National Salvation Movement, denounced that he was denied participation in the space organized by the main regional media “for security reasons”. The politician emphasizes that he was the first to register with the Registry Office and yet they do not recognize him as a candidate for the Casa de Nariño.

Even Gomez has also assured that the quality of the electoral debate is very low. He points out, like citizens, that in these spaces candidates are being allowed to attack each other and very little expose ideas.

“Is this really the height of the presidential debate that Colombia deserves? Without ideas and without proposals, that's why they suddenly exclude me, because I do have many to expose to the country,” criticized Gómez.

Against this background, those close to Petro's campaign celebrate his decision to only attend the debate where government plans are allowed to be presented. Among those who share this vision is Iván Cepeda, senator-elect of the Historical Pact.

“I think that Gustavo Petro's decision not to continue to take part in debates that turn into a show in which on the one hand he spends proposals, ideas, arguments, and the other candidates dedicate themselves to insulting him,” he said.

It should be noted that the Petro communications team confirmed this Sunday the candidate's attendance at the RCN News debate that will take place tomorrow (Monday holiday - March 21) in the evening.

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