Gabriel Vallejo, director of the Democratic Center, vehemently defends his party’s aspiration for the presidency of the Senate in the first year of the new Congress. He assures that they are the majority caucus and that they were the first group to announce their declaration as the governing party after Abelardo de la Espriella’s victory, so they have the full right to aspire despite the wishes of the new president, who has already given Alfredo Deluque his nod.
In an interview with EL TIEMPO, the head of the Uribista party insists that the autonomy of the Legislature must be respected. He also recalled Alfredo Deluque’s Santos-era past as one of the arguments for not supporting his presidency.
You want to put Senator Honorio Henríquez in the presidency of the Senate, instead of Alfredo Deluque, the government’s candidate. How is that struggle for the presidency of the Senate going?
I have wanted to explain to the country that I do not like to use the term struggle because there really is no such struggle here. Here the Democratic Center party – the party that opposed and has opposed Gustavo Petro’s government from day one, the party that opposed the total peace law and the reforms presented by Gustavo Petro’s government for considering them harmful to the country – is exercising its legitimate right to put forward a name like Senator Honorio Henríquez to aspire to the presidency of the Senate of the Republic. We are waiting in this conversation with the other parties. We are firm in our convictions and we support the government of Dr. Abelardo de La Espriella, we quickly declared ourselves as the governing party. This is an honorable party, this is a disciplined party, and it is a party that, without expecting anything in return, decided to declare itself the governing party and we will honor our word. That is why I do not like to call it a struggle insofar as here we are simply putting before the Congress of the Republic, the plenary of the Senate, the name of Honorio Henríquez as president to preside over the Senate of the Republic starting July twentieth.
Efraín Cepeda has already said that the Conservative Party will not support you in your intention to put the president of the Senate. Are you being left alone?
That is part of the political discussion. President Abelardo de La Espriella, directly, and the appointed Interior Minister have been reiterative that they will respect the autonomy of the Congress of the Republic in these discussions. We start from that principle of good faith, that they will respect the conversations. And well, let’s wait. The Conservative Party makes this declaration, but there are still several hours left for the final decision to be made. We repeat again, this is not a matter of challenging, putting, or measuring forces. This is because the Democratic Center, the opposition party to Gustavo Petro’s government, considers that we have the legitimate right, among other things, because this is an arithmetic exercise – not political – and we are the largest government caucus.
You say the government has already said it will respect autonomy, but at the same time it is telling you it wants Deluque as president of Congress and it seems that this is the position that is winning at this moment. How can you explain these two positions?
We hope that the government honors and fulfills the promise to respect that autonomy. We are in permanent dialogue with the parties that have expressed their intention to support the government of Dr. de La Espriella and that is why we insist that this party, which is a coherent party and represents in one way or another the theses that Dr. Abelardo expressed to the country about what his vision of government would be, which are our same postulates, must exercise a legitimate right, because the numbers indicate so. The parties, according to their number of congressmen, determine the dignities in the leadership tables of Congress, the secretariats of the commissions, and the composition of the commissions.
It is true that it is an arithmetic exercise. That is why it was also talked about Daniel Briceño, from your party, being president of the Chamber, but you decided to prioritize the Senate. Aren’t you afraid of being left without the bread and without the cheese, that is, without either of the two presidencies?
I believe that the Democratic Center has never made that kind of political calculation of being left without the bread and without the cheese, that is not our way of acting. We exercise the right to aspire to the presidency of the Senate. There is a logical code of honor: whoever aspires to the presidency of the Senate cannot simultaneously aspire to the presidency of the Chamber and it is common sense. But I repeat, this obeys a dialogue, conversations with the parties and does not mean that we are going to sacrifice the presidency of the Chamber, which also corresponds to us for arithmetic reasons. What happens is that, since we aspire to preside over the Senate, we could not aspire to the presidency of the Chamber. But here we have not sacrificed nor are we charging absolutely anything, we are simply exercising our legitimate right as the majority party. I see no problem with that.
There are versions that say you opposed Deluque on the grounds that he was close to the Santos administration and promoted peace issues while he was president of the Chamber, is that true?
There are no vetoes of any kind here, far from it. But obviously the country has to know that Senator Alfredo Deluque, whom we of course respect, played a very important role in the Santos administration in promoting the Havana agreements with the FARC. Senator Alfredo Deluque supported the ‘total peace’ bill of President Petro’s government and some of the tax reforms. We want to tell the country that, as the opposition party to Gustavo Petro’s government, we propose a name like Honorio Henríquez, whose honesty and coherence have been proven, and who has been in line with what President Abelardo’s government has said. But there are no vetoes here, far from it, these are simply natural, logical discussions and questions that we ask ourselves.
There are some sectors that question an alleged rapprochement of the Democratic Center with the Historic Pact to try to win that dignity. What do you say to them?
That is completely false. The Democratic Center has not approached nor has it approached the Historic Pact or any party that is going to declare or could declare itself in opposition to Abelardo de La Espriella’s government. What was reported in the media is that Senator Alfredo Deluque himself called Senator Marta Peralta, from the Pact, probably to count on her support.
Is there any possibility that you will recalculate and say, well, let’s go with the Chamber, but without Briceño? Some have commented that the problem was also that there is resentment towards Daniel Briceño because of his statements before the first round.
That is not true. For Representative Daniel Briceño, all the affection, respect, admiration. This party, which is characterized by promoting new leadership, has fully backed Daniel. He is a very important man for the Democratic Center and for Colombia. Daniel’s leadership must be cared for and projected. What is a reality, which I was just explaining, is that given the party’s legitimate aspiration to preside over the Senate of the Republic, obviously we were not going to aspire to the Chamber in this first year. But if, for some reason, in the midst of the discussions in the coming days, the order of the presidencies of the Chamber changes and at the appropriate time Representative Briceño wants to aspire, of course he has every right, and we would be very happy.
How is the relationship with the government? Your absence in the cabinet has been missed.
We are not expecting representation of the Democratic Center in the cabinet. On June 23 we clearly explained this to the country. President Abelardo’s government has full autonomy to choose its cabinet as it sees fit and the party has no expectation of participation or representation there nor has it conditioned its support for President Abelardo de La Espriella on this type of representation. That is very important to make clear to the country. The cabinet is an autonomous decision of President Abelardo de La Espriella and we respect whatever he decides. That does not affect in any way the support we have decided to give him as the president-elect of Colombia.
What will be the bet these four years? Where are you headed? Especially since you have very strong political capital.
We have presented the country with an ambitious legislative agenda that directly impacts the 50 million Colombians. We are talking about solving problems related to property tax, cadastre. We are talking about mining formalization. We are talking about easing many of the burdens and problems that Colombians face today. That is a priority for us. We will file a series of bills on July 20 that we consider important for Colombia. Of course, as the governing party, we will support the president-elect Abelardo de La Espriella so that his government has a political party that will support him in the Congress of the Republic, that is another major priority. We also have territorial elections in mind, this is a party that got more than 6 million votes in the congressional elections between the Chamber and Senate. We need that same vote to transfer to the territorial elections and for this party to consolidate as one of the largest political forces in Colombia.
In conclusion, one of the questions Colombia has is that you are the largest government caucus, but how much could issues like Carlos Suárez have impacted this relationship so that the De la Espriella government did not consider you in the cabinet and does not look at you for the presidency of the Senate?
Our higher purpose is Colombia. Our purpose is to help President de La Espriella’s government so that he does well, so that Colombia does well. We do not get into discussions or quarrels that do not contribute to improving the quality of life for millions of Colombians.
JUAN SEBASTIÁN LOMBO DELGADO
Political editorial