Sergio Fajardo dissociated himself from sanctismo and assured that his candidacy is independent: “They have nothing to do with us”

The candidate of the Centro Esperanza Coalition is competing for the presidency with a former minister of the previous government, but says it has nothing to do with former President Juan Manuel Santos

Colombian presidential candidate Sergio Fajardo arrives at a presidential debate on national television in Bogota, Colombia March 21, 2022. REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez

Since the former Minister of Environment, Luis Gilberto Murillo, became official as Sergio Fajardo's vice-presidential formula, he has again assured, from various sectors, that they are the bishops that former President Juan Manuel Santos has to supposedly return to power. In the last few hours, the presidential candidate denied these rumors.

It should be remembered that Murillo led that portfolio during Santos's second government. In addition, this week, Alfonso Prada, former director of the Seine and former official of the Nobel Peace Prize, joined Gustavo Petro's campaign. Fajardo expressed his opinion in this regard and assured that there is no room for alliances for officials from the previous mandate in his candidacy.

“Here we come to propose the alternatives that Colombia's development requires. Me with Alfonso Prada the last time I saw him was eight years ago. I have no idea what his political status is. Whatever the definition of santism is, it has nothing to do with what we are building for Colombia,” said the candidate of the Esperanza Center Coalition to the microphones of W Radio station, during the morning of Saturday, April 9.

In that dialogue, the presidential candidate was also positive in the face of the negative results he has obtained in the polls that measure citizens' intention to vote. “This is the seventh campaign I do in my life, we have always had to come from behind, in the first survey I did I had 0% (...) we know how to go back,” Fajardo said.

They are not the only pronouncements since that candidacy in which they differ from being Juan Manuel Santos's quota for the upcoming elections. Today's vice-presidential candidate Murillo assured that he does not represent any former president but the Afro-Colombian communities of which he is part.

What's more, Fajardo himself acknowledged a few weeks ago that he has been questioned on several occasions of wanting to represent the former Colombian president at the polls. “The answer is simple and short: no. I have walked a path of independence, of alternative in this country and that is why I say that I am not his candidate -Juan Manuel Santos-”, Fajardo told Semana magazine.

Moreover, he even defended himself against former President Andrés Pastrana, who has made himself known in these elections because he assured that Santos has already elected a candidate and that he would be the one who today carries the ideals of central politics on his shoulders.

For now, the presidential candidate continues to tour the country to win voters. For example, this weekend he is in Antioquia and recently he also questioned those who say he has no electoral future because of his results in the polls.

Fajardo, who has been quite active on his social networks, referred to this situation and published a trill in which he says that they “want to count” with regard to the results that could be reflected in the presidential elections of May 29 and in which right-wing candidate Federico Gutiérrez and left-wing Gustavo Petro they would reach the second round. He assured that he has already shown that he knows how to govern and gave as an example his time at the Mayor's Office of Medellín.

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